Songbird Angie Stone first flew into our hearts with her pure, riveting soul music during the 1990s with neo-soul group Vertical Hold. Once she went solo, hits like ' No More Rain (In This Cloud)' 'Neither One of Us (Want to Be the First to Say Goodbye)' and 'Wish I Didn't Miss You' ensured her longevity.

Faced with numerous health problems since she was in her 20s, Stone recounts how being exposed to a chemical caused the inflammatory disease Sarcoidosis and led to a chain of events that led to a downward spiral of health challenges including diabetes, high blood pressure and even congestive heart failure.

She shares her Testimony on how she made it through her health battles and weight issues in an industry that is primarily focused on outward appearance.

Let me give you the rundown, when I was 26 years-old, I worked at [Columbia] Presbyterian Hospital. I was temping, and I was trapped inside the doctor's office. There were no windows and something spilled in the hallway that ran across the door. Everyone had a mask but me. So whatever spilled was airborne.

I got exposed to something that almost caused me to go blind and really degenerated my joints and had me aching and hurting. By the time they found out what it was I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis.

I was afraid; no one in my family had a history of [Sarcoidosis]. It wasn't like we could trace it back to any one. I was the only one in this family exposed. So it came from the spill. So was I scared, yes. Because it meant for the rest of my life possibly, I was going to have to be on all this medicine.

I cried a whole lot. I mean, of course, I'm grounded spiritually, but I cried a lot originally. Because I was a beautiful -- in my opinion I'm still beautiful -- but at that time I was a healthy beautiful; I'm 26, 27, I'm so happy, I've got a major deal. This was before my son. In fact, it was the birth of my son that made the disease go into demise. It went completely away. My pregnancy actually healed me. I had absolutely no symptoms of the disease in my body when I was pregnant.

Though her second pregnancy (with R&B star D'Angelo) forced her Sarcoidosis into a remission, the long-term effects of the medication for it exacted a physical and emotional toll on Stone, and possibly the early onset of diabetes and high blood pressure.

The pills make you emotional. So I cried. The thing that hurt me most is I gained 40 pounds in one month. And once I was over 200 pounds. I looked at myself in misery and said, I don't deserve this. But again, God knew what he was doing, he wouldn't put more on me than I could bear. I looked at myself and I was a prideful girl that had a body to die for and to lose all that in a four week period, to go from strikingly gorgeous to obesity, it was the saddest time of my life.

I had to be treated with Prednisone. Prednisone helps to retain water in the body which causes heart problems. Too much time on the medication -- I was on the medication for 12 years -- caused the diabetes. So the medication starts to break my body down.

[Then], part of the medicine that was given to me to treat the diabetes, which they recalled off the market [Avandamet], I believe that was part of my congestive heart failure. Because of the medication, my organs are not as strong as they would have been 15 years ago.

Congestive heart failure is shortness of breath. You can't lay down because there's fluid around your heart. There was too much water in my body. And what they do to treat it [is] they give you medicine, and they give you a catheter and they pull all the fluid out of your body just so you don't drown in your own fluids. No open heart surgery, no heart attack. There was one time when I was taking maybe six, seven pills twice a day. And I'm down to Glucophage twice a day and my blood pressure medicine twice a day. My lifestyle changed after I got on the medication because, of course, there are side effects. And the side effects of Prednisone are you're very moody, you shake. The diabetic medicine, Glucophage, makes you very sleepy. I have a vigorous schedule and when I take those pills, I can be very sluggish during the day. So everything is affected to a degree.

Because I'm a spiritual person and I'm so linked to God and I just don't believe everything is going to happen to me anytime soon, I go back to the doctor and one doctor says, No signs of congestive heart failure. So my heart is in great shape, my circulation is great, everything is wonderful, with the exception of the fact that I still have to take a high blood pressure and diabetes medicine. Type 1. I'm not on insulin. I used to misbehave, I'd take them when I needed them, but now I try to take them every day because I was in denial for a long time.

My spirituality taught me that God used me as an example to teach people about outer beauty. In this industry, the worst thing that could happen to me, happened to me. Because this industry is driven by your looks. And it made me aware of my inner beauty because I refused to allow my weight be an issue to stop me from singing, doing what I do to help the rest of the world heal through my music. So I think my self love got in check from another perspective; I stopped looking at how beautiful I was outside and really focused on my inside.

I'm really in a good space right now, no heart pain, no chest pain. The beauty of what's happened for me is that I've lost an enormous amount of weight [Stone was a contestant on the fourth season of 'Celebrity Fit Club'] so that helps with everything.