Featured Image Credit: Amy Sussman/WireImage/Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Christina Applegate, Health, Podcasts
Lucy Devine
Topics: Celebrity, Christina Applegate, Health, Podcasts
Christina Applegate has revealed how she's been in hospital 30 times since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The 53-year-old Dead to Me star was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the summer of 2021 and has been open about her health issues in order to help shine a light on MS.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord, resulting in a wide range of potential symptoms including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.
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Applegate said she was originally able to 'brush off' her initial symptoms, until the time came to film the third season of Dead To Me, where she felt as though she'd been 'hit by a truck and didn’t know what was going on'.
Speaking to Variety, Applegate said: "It was very scary for me, because this body that I had known was no longer mine. We had to kind of work around that until, finally, I had answers.
"I found that I had MS while we were shooting on a Monday. I went home, and the doctor said, 'I need to do this meeting with you'.
"I could feel that this Zoom was not going to be good news. It sucked, I’m not going to lie."
Since being diagnosed three years ago, Christina says she's been hospitalised 30 times due to sickness and diarrhoea.
“For three years, since I was diagnosed, I’ve been in the hospital upwards of 30 times from throwing up and diarrhoea and pain,” she revealed on her “MeSsy” podcast.
“That is unimaginable, OK? They’ve done every test known to man on me, put so much radiation into my body from CT scans to everything else."
Responding to a listener who had written in about their MS symptoms, Christina explained she thinks her gastric symptoms could be linked.
“Now, maybe this isn’t what’s happening, but I’m just going to tell you this. Talk to your doctor about motility issues, OK," she said.
“Because one of the things with MS is that it slows down our organs, you know, not like completely, but there is a slowing of the function of your organs.
“I have noticed that — and I’m going to be really honest — if I have to poop, I puke."
Christina explained that her doctor doesn't necessarily think her symptoms are related to her MS, but that she's having a colonoscopy to find out more information.
“My neuro... says that’s not an MS thing,” she said.
“So, I’m sorry, there’s got to be a correlation here, and I’m not a doctor. I’m not giving medical advice. I’m just saying, just think about that, OK? Because I’m in the middle of the same exact situation, and it f**king sucks, and it’s scary.”