Diseases don’t care who you are. They can affect all of us, regardless of social status, wealth, skin color, or age.
Every once in a while, a celebrity opens up about their health struggles. As much as it saddens us to hear their stories, this helps raise awareness about health issues that people don’t talk about enough.
Lyme disease is a good example. It’s useful to take a look at what celebrities with Lyme disease have to say about living with this life-changing condition.
Avril Lavigne
In 2014, Avril Lavigne was diagnosed with Lyme disease. A year later, she decided to speak out about how the condition affected her life after the diagnosis. She states that for the first five months, she was bedridden. After being bitten by a tick, the disease went undiagnosed for 8 months, which was enough for it to cause serious issues.
Luckily, in an interview she gave to PEOPLE magazine at the beginning of 2019, Lavigne says she’s feeling very good. The foundation that she started after being diagnosed has helped many people battle the disease, and she plans to continue her efforts to aid Lyme prevention.
Yolanda Hadid
Yolanda Hadid has devoted the past few years to spreading awareness about Lyme disease. Yolanda and her son Anwar Hadid both have the disease, and so does her daughter, supermodel Bella Hadid.
It’s quite common for Lyme disease to affect multiple family members. The reasons for this are still unclear but it may be due to the fact that families share the same environment. In the case of the Hadids, it’s suspected that they came into contact with diseased ticks at the family horse ranch in Santa Barbara.
Yolanda Hadid wrote a book on the disease, spoke at the Global Lyme Alliance Gala, and has been spreading the word about her struggles on social media to help people understand the way the disease works, and how it can affect anyone.
Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Osbourne contracted Lyme disease in 2004, when she was bitten by a tick at her father’s 56th birthday. Immediately after this happened, she started feeling severe stomach pains, a sore throat, and a variety of other symptoms associated with the disease.
Not long after, she was diagnosed with Lyme. She says that, even though she struggled a lot, the experience taught her to trust her instinct and advocate for her health.
Ally Hilfiger
The daughter of fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger has been struggling with Lyme ever since she was seven years old. After getting bitten by a tick as a child, she spent 10 years receiving different diagnoses, all of which were incorrect. These included anxiety, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and many others.
She states she felt quite relieved after receiving the true diagnosis, as she finally knew what she was up against. Since then, she has been battling the disease, and most of the symptoms have subsided. She says that she still has good and bad days, but that she’s gotten used to it as it’s not likely to change in the foreseeable future.
Daryl Hall
Daryl Hall, the lead vocalist of Hall & Oates, received his Lyme diagnosis in 2005. Living in the countryside for many years, he was exposed to wildlife on a daily basis, which is among the biggest risk factors for contracting Lyme.
At first, Hall didn’t know what was happening to his body. He thought he had allergies because he’d feel feverish from time to time. But then his symptoms got worse, and he started experiencing severe muscle stiffness, a high fever, and tremors all over his body. He had to cancel his tour because of the effect that the disease had on his body, and he started focusing on treatment.
Richard Gere
In 2000, Richard Gere had to delay working on the movie Autumn in New York due to his Lyme diagnosis. He states that the disease was quite frightening for him, and that he felt as if has life has been going in slow motion during treatment. He suffered severe body aches and was robbed of all his strength.
Luckily, his Lyme was diagnosed while it was still in the early stages. It didn’t grow into a chronic disease, which is why Gere was able to recover fully after a course of antibiotics. He hasn’t felt any symptoms ever since, and he has been free from the disease from the moment he finished treatment.
Amy Tan
This prominent American novelist has experienced a severe case of Lyme disease, which evolved into late-stage neuroborreliosis, a neurological manifestation of the disease. The main reason why her disease was able to spread so far is because she was misdiagnosed for four years.
When she first started feeling symptoms, she didn’t think much of them. She tied them to stress and too many plane rides with very little sleep. However, she started suffering from severe insomnia, joint pain, heart palpitations, and various other symptoms that baffled her doctors. Because this disease is difficult to recognize, she went on without an accurate diagnosis for too long.
Today, she says she does have her life back, but she’s still not cured. The disease caused permanent body damage, including 16 brain lesions and epilepsy. Luckily, the antibiotics are working, and she’s able to write again.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
The famous actress is a good example of a celeb with a fully treated Lyme disease. She contracted Lyme on set in rural New Jersey, after which she started feeling a tingling sensation in her feet, which turned into leg paralysis.
Luckily, the disease didn’t have enough time to produce any chronic symptoms, as Sigler was given appropriate antibiotic treatments on time. She says this was a life-changing experience for her, as it made her realize that everything could be taken from her in one moment.
Spreading the Word
Many celebrities with Lyme disease try their best to share their story with the world, so that people know how the disease can present itself. Like with many other severe health issues, early detection in key. If caught on time, Lyme disease doesn’t have to take a toll on the overall life quality of the person who contracted it.
References:
https://people.com/health/celebs-who-have-lyme-disease/#avril-lavigne
https://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20981646,00.html
https://www.health.com/mind-body/ally-hilfiger-lyme-disease
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/11/deconstructing-lyme-disease/my-plight-with-lyme-disease
http://www.ajnr.org/content/30/6/1079
https://www.popmythology.com/15-celebrities-with-lyme-disease
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