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Brooke Shields has admitted medical experts once asked her a question after she suffered a major seizure that she believes they ‘wouldn’t say to a man’.
On Monday (January 13) Shields, 59, appeared on Good Morning America to promote her new brand book, Brook Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old.
The 256-page non-fiction read sees the actress candidly expressing her thoughts on ageing as a woman while ‘dismantling the myths that have, for too long, dimmed’ the perception of being a lady ‘in the prime of her life’.
“Sharing her own life experiences with humour and humility, and weaving together research and reporting, Brooke takes aim at the systemic factors that contribute to age-related bias,” an official synopsis states.
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Ahead of the guide's publication today (January 14) by Little Brown Book Group in the UK, The Blue Lagoon star explained why she wanted to discuss women’s experiences in the healthcare system.
“Women go through stuff. We need to be able to say, ‘This isn’t fair.’ We need to be able to self-advocate,” the Pretty Baby favourite began.
“I had a seizure not too long ago and the two male doctors said: ‘Are you restricting yourself for dietary reasons?’.
“And I was like, ‘No. I’m a 59-year-old woman who looks younger bloated. Give me some potato chips!’ You wouldn’t say that to a man.
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“And that’s not what the book is, it’s not reducing it to male, female — we love the men in our lives,” she continued.
“But it’s time to kind of explore this without yelling, without being angry. I tell my girls… we don’t have to yell louder.
“We just have to be secure in what we believe and to be heard, because we’re not going to get anywhere by just screaming.”
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Brooke’s appearance on Good Morning America isn’t the first time she has opened up about having a seizure.
Last November, she told Glamour in her Woman of the Year interview that she’d experienced a health scare before a performance of her one-woman show, Previously Owned by Brooke Shields.
Ahead of the theatrical event, held at New York City’s Café Carlyle for 11 nights in September 2023, the Broadway star admitted she was ‘drinking so much water’ before heading on stage one evening.
“I didn't know I was low in sodium,” she explained to the publication.
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“I was waiting for an Uber. I get down to the bottom of the steps, and I start evidently looking weird, and [the people I was with] were like, ‘Are you OK?'”
Due to feeling ill, Brooke exited the taxi and headed over to a nearby restaurant, where she stated everything started ‘to go black’.
“Then my hands drop to my side and I go headfirst into the wall.”
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She recalled ‘frothing at the mouth’ and being ‘totally blue’ before being loaded into an ambulance.
“I have oxygen on. And Bradley f***ing Cooper is sitting next to me holding my hand.”
Doctors confirmed the mother-of-two’s ‘low sodium’ levels had caused the seizure.
"I drowned myself. And if you don't have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure,” she added.
How can drinking too much water cause seizures?
Cleveland Clinic writes that a seizure could be a clear indication that you’re suffering from water intoxication, a condition in which there is too much water in your body.
Drinking too much water can simultaneously dilute your blood and decrease electrolytes, especially sodium.
As water moves into your cells, they can swell and often increase pressure on the brain.
Symptoms of water intoxication include nausea and vomiting, drowsiness, muscle cramps, swelling in your hands, feet and belly, and seizures.
Water intoxication can also cause sufferers to enter a coma and/or experience delirium in more severe cases.
Topics: Books, Brooke Shields, Celebrity, Health, Women's Health
Ella Scott