Their Super Bowl game day ad highlights how simple request at your next appointment can reveal risks long before symptoms show up.
For award-winning actors and longtime friends Octavia Spencer and Sofía Vergara, health advocacy is a personal mission, and respectively, it’s patient and caregiver. Spencer, best known for her roles in movies like The Help, Hidden Figures, and Ma, has lived with type 2 diabetes for two decades and, more recently, high blood pressure. Meanwhile, Vergara, beloved for projects like Modern Family and America’s Got Talent, sees those risks up close as she helps her mother manage high blood pressure and stay on top of appointments and screenings. Together, they’re now speaking out about the importance of paying attention to what can be missed long before symptoms appear.
That shared perspective is what led them to get involved with Detect the SOS, a public health initiative—with Boehringer Ingelheim, the American Diabetes Association, National Kidney Foundation, Mended Hearts and WomenHeart—encouraging people with high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes to ask their doctors about a simple urine test known as the uACR (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio). The test can help flag early signs of kidney damage, often before routine screenings catch anything.
In a wide-ranging conversation with The Healthy, Spencer, 55, and Vergara, 53, share more of the motivations that propelled them to get involved with the campaign, their thoughts on aging and longevity, and why advocating for your own health or a loved one’s can start with a single question in the exam room.
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The Healthy: This campaign centers on early detection. Was there a moment in your own lives when you realized prevention and screening matter just as much as treatment, and what brought you to this campaign?
Octavia Spencer: I think we’ve seen this with other campaigns like breast health and colonoscopy screenings where prevention plays such an important role. This is equally important, and we hope it can have that same kind of reach once people realize how easy this screening is. Personally, I’m a type 2 diabetic and I have high blood pressure. Early screening was imperative for me, especially once I learned that people with diabetes and high blood pressure are at higher risk for kidney damage, which can also lead to cardiovascular events. So this was very important to be part of.
The Healthy: And Sofia?
Sofia Vergara: Several things. First of all, my mother—she’s in her 70s—has high blood pressure. I don’t yet; I’m 53. But in my family, there’s a big problem with high blood pressure. This is very important to me because I’ve become my mother’s enforcer. Sometimes she doesn’t take things seriously or she forgets, so I really have to keep her focused, making appointments for her, guiding what her year should look like in terms of screenings and checkups, things she doesn’t really want to do.
Then, of course, they told me I was going to work with this girl right here, and that got me super excited. And also because I’m Latina, this is an issue that really affects the Latino community in this country and all over the world. It’s crazy how common high blood pressure and diabetes are among Latinos. This test we’re on a mission to promote can help people assess their risk for chronic kidney disease, which is something very serious, very dangerous.
The Healthy: You’re each coming at this as either a patient or a caregiver. High blood pressure and type 2 diabetes are often described as manageable, but they can lead to serious complications. What do you want people to understand that they might be missing about living with these conditions, based on your experiences?
Sofia Vergara: What we’re really trying to tell people is that if you have high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes, you are at risk of developing chronic kidney disease. That’s very serious. And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know there’s a very simple test. It’s not a colonoscopy; it’s not blood. It’s a urine test. Very easy.
Octavia Spencer: So easy!
Sofia Vergara: With this test, you can detect whether you’re at risk for kidney disease, heart attack, or stroke. It’s sad that this hasn’t become something every doctor routinely tells patients with high blood pressure or diabetes to check. What we want is for patients to know this option exists and to ask for it and advocate for themselves. There’s a simple test out there that can help manage a very serious disease: chronic kidney disease.
Octavia Spencer: And when I heard about it, I asked my doctor. It was easy because you’re already doing some form of urinalysis. Asking for this screening was simple, and getting the results was reassuring—it was wonderful to know my kidneys are functioning normally. That’s what we want people to take away from this. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, your body may be sending out an SOS that your kidneys are in danger. There’s a very easy test—the uACR—and people can go to DetectTheSOS.com to learn more.
The Healthy: One topic our readers are very interested in right now is longevity—not just living longer, but protecting quality of life. How has thinking about your health shaped how you approach work, travel, or daily habits? What health practices have earned your trust over time?
Sofia Vergara: For me, at this age, after working for so long, the most important thing is taking care of myself—if you have that luxury. I don’t take jobs now that are going to exhaust me the way I used to. Before, I needed to, and I had the energy and the help. Now I want to be more thoughtful about doing things that make me happy, not just for money.
I want to be able to work out while I’m doing a job, eat well, and see my family. That’s my approach at 53. There’s so much you can’t control about whether you’ll get sick, but we know that eating well, exercising, and having social interactions with people you love make a difference in health and longevity. And also, I’ll put on any mask, cream, or product anyone tells me will make me look younger—I’ll put it on.
Octavia Spencer: For me, I think Sofia covered a lot of it. In our industry, and probably for most people, we tend to push doctor’s appointments into the future until something is wrong. We need to get better about routine visits even when we feel well, so we’re not waiting for a problem to show up. I’m also a bit of a workaholic, so I’m trying to spend more quality time with family and friends. And as I age, I want to go into the next phase of my life stronger, so I’m much more committed to fitness now than I was before. Functional strength training and Pilates. Everything seems to shrink, so I’m just trying to lengthen and get stronger.
The Healthy: What’s one self-care habit you refuse to skip?
Octavia Spencer: Hot tubs and hot salt soaking baths.
Sofia Vergara: I wash my hair every day. I’ve done it since I was young. People are always surprised, but I grew up in Colombia—it’s tropical, hot, humid. You have to wash your hair every day. So I still do it.
Octavia Spencer: You have so much hair—maybe I need to start doing this.
The Healthy: Lastly, looking ahead, what projects are you most excited about right now?
Octavia Spencer: FEDS and Lost Women of Alaska are two franchise series I narrate and executive produce for Warner Bros. Discovery. Lost Women of Alaska follows the disappearances of Indigenous women in Alaska, while FEDS is ongoing. We had access to the FBI and some of their most dangerous, high-profile cases. The series will air February 25 and March 4.
Sofia Vergara: Right now, I’m not acting—I’m focused on my companies. I have a coffee company called Dios Mio, a makeup line called Toty, and a Latin food company called TOMA. I’m really focused on growing those, and it’s been exciting to launch all of them. I’ve always been more on the business side than the acting side, so I’m having a great time. And Octavia—we’re going to do something together. Maybe a movie, a TV show, a reality show. I don’t know. [laughing] No, we’ll get in trouble!
For daily wellness updates, subscribe to The Healthy newsletter and follow The Healthy on Facebook and Instagram. Keep reading:
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- Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete Say Their Biggest Fights Are About Health
- Julianne Moore Is Urging You To Request This Screening from Your Doctor
