ACTOR Christina Applegate has opened up about her ongoing struggle with multiple sclerosis (MS), sharing that she rarely leaves home.
“This is the worst thing I’ve ever had in my life,”; the Married... with Children star said.
She added: “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever gone through.”;
The 53-year-old spoke about how the disease has affected her life during a May 5 appearance on Conan O’Brien’s Needs a Friend video podcast.
“I don’t really leave the house anymore,”; she told Conon. “It’s really, really hard.”;
Christina was diagnosed with MSin 2021.
The condition is thought to affect around 1 million people in the US, 100,000 in England, and 2.5 million worldwide.
The exact cause is still unknown.
But risk factors include being biologically female, having a family history of , and living in places with less sunlight – the risk tends to rise the further north you live.
It occurs when the immune system turns inward and attacks the nerves and their protective coating, myelin.
This causes inflammation in the brain and the spinal cord, leading to a range of symptoms like vision problems, movement difficulties, and clumsiness.
The initial symptoms, she explained to Conan, were painful.
“I was losing balance, but the pain was extraordinary. And when I say numb, it’s numb, but it hurts,”; she said.
The Netflix Dead to Me alum has been candid about her brutal symptoms, in the past.
She revealed on her podcast and in interviews that she’ll “lay in bed screaming”; from pain, and that “unimaginable”; bouts of vomiting and diarrhea have landed her in the hospital 30 times.
There are lots of possible symptoms of MS. Everyone with the condition is affected differently.
The 8 most common symptoms include:
- Feeling extremely tired (fatigue)
- Problems with your eyes or your vision, such as blurred vision or eye pain
- Numbness or a tingling feeling in different parts of the body
- Feeling off balance, dizzy or clumsy (uncoordinated)
- Muscle cramps, spasms and stiffness
- Needing to pee more often or not being able to control when you pee
- Problems with memory or concentration
- Sexual problems, including a dry vagina or
In some patients, episodes are followed by periods of remission (relapsing remitting MS).
While others experience gradually worsening symptoms (progressive MS).
Christina has never releaved what type of MS she has.
