Celebrities like Yolanda Hadid and Alec Baldwin have opened up about their struggles with Lyme disease, however if you happen to’ve ever questioned what this well being situation really is, you’re not alone. Based on the CDC, Lyme illness is a bacterial an infection unfold to people via bites from infected ticks. It’s the commonest vector-borne sickness within the U.S., the CDC notes, affecting about 30,000 Individuals every year and inflicting signs like fever, headache, fatigue, or a rash on the website of the tick bite.
Whereas Lyme infections will be handled with antibiotics, the illness will be tough to diagnose as a result of it shares so many signs with different sicknesses. If left untreated for too lengthy, the an infection can unfold all through the physique, leading to power well being points. This type of Lyme, referred to as Post-Treatment Lyme Disease (PTLD), is believed to be the results of an autoimmune response to the preliminary an infection. (It’s typically known as Power Lyme Illness, or CLD, though consultants sometimes don’t use this time period.) PTLD signs vary in severity, from mind fog to full-body exhaustion, and whereas remedies can be found, the sickness itself is incurable.
Dwelling with an invisible illness like PLTD will be lonely and terrifying, which is why many celebrities with Lyme illness have chosen to make use of their platforms to unfold consciousness about remedy and prevention. Preserve studying to study extra about how Lyme has affected the lives of celebs like Bella Hadid, Shania Twain, and Justin Bieber, amongst others.
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Miranda Hart
Picture Credit score: Photograph by Anthony Harvey/Getty Photographs Miranda Hart wrote in her memoir I Haven’t Been Fully Sincere With You, she talked about having Lyme illness. Whereas on “The Graham Norton Show” alongside Selena Gomez, she thanked her for being so candid about her well being struggles throughout her Apple TV+ documentary, My Thoughts & Me.
“It’s extraordinary that I’m on the present with Selena, as a result of it makes me fairly emotional as a result of after I noticed your documentary on Apple about your sickness struggles, I used to be pondering, do I share? Is that this one thing I ought to do? As a result of it feels fairly weak sharing one thing that I’ve by no means performed earlier than,” she stated. “And I watched your documentary, and I simply thought completely sure, and that’s what stored me writing.”
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Yolanda Hadid
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs Yolanda Hadid was identified with a severe, neurological case of Lyme disease in 2012. On the time, a specialist discovered proof of an lively an infection in her mind.
Within the years since, the Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills alum has undergone quite a few procedures to alleviate Lyme signs like mind fog, fatigue, and migraines. Her signs had been so debilitating, she as soon as contemplated dying by suicide.
Hadid chronicled her arduous well being journey in her 2017 memoir, Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease. Extra lately, the truth TV persona revealed that she suffered a “Lyme relapse” following the dying of her mom in 2021.
“After the lack of my mom I actually struggled with despair adopted by a lyme relapse…. the emotional stress and grief strongly effected my immune system,” she wrote to her 3.8 million Instagram followers. “[I’m] studying to concentrate on myself, my well being journey and being current on this second of my life.”
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Bella Hadid
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs Bella Hadid, Yolanda’s daughter, additionally contracted the tick-borne sickness in 2012. As Elle reported, the supermodel was simply 16 years outdated when she started experiencing signs like problem strolling, joint ache, and nausea.
Though Bella has realized the way to stay with Lyme, she nonetheless experiences signs like swelling, fatigue, and anxiousness. In a candid Tiktok post from March, Bella bought actual about why she hates “trying within the mirror or taking photos, particularly recently.”
“Once I’m working rather a lot, [fashion week], burdened and so forth. (aka all the time) my pores and skin modifications color, I escape randomly, I get (what looks like) lesions, lethargy, power anxiousness, zero motivation or goal, leaky intestine, adrenals, [depression],” she defined.
“Years and years of this. If I’m all dolled up perhaps I’ll strive for the ladies, however man is it onerous to do that as your career whereas additionally feeling/trying sick like this,” Bella continued.
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Shania Twain
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for CMT Shania Twain got here down with Lyme illness in 2003 after she was bitten by tick whereas horseback driving. She opened up concerning the harrowing expertise in her 2022 Netflix documentary, Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl.
“My signs had been fairly scary as a result of earlier than I used to be identified, I used to be on stage very dizzy,” the nation music celebrity revealed within the doc, per Vanity Fair. “I used to be shedding my steadiness, I used to be afraid I used to be gonna fall off the stage… I used to be having these very, very, very millisecond blackouts, however repeatedly, each minute or each 30 seconds.”
Lyme additionally affected Twain’s voice. For years, she thought she’d “misplaced [her] voice perpetually” and would by no means sing once more. Fortunately, the “Man! I Really feel Like a Girl!” singer now has a “grip” on her signs and is making music once more.
“I’ve a distinct voice now, however I personal it,” Twain added. “I really like my voice now.”
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Debbie Gibson
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs 80s pop sensation Debbie Gibson first began experiencing Lyme illness signs in 2013, together with meals sensitivities, fatigue, migraines, and again ache. It took her 9 months to get a prognosis, telling People in 2021, “I’ve come to a spot the place I’ve realized to count on the sudden with my well being, however I do know I can get via it. And each time I get via it, I’m reminded of how robust all of us are.”
As of 2023, Gibson was feeling assured in how she manages her signs. “ I’ve realized the way to overcome,” she instructed People. “I’ve by no means stated I’m combating Lyme [disease], I say I’m overcoming Lyme. So, I’ve actually overcome rather a lot and I simply stay diligent and consumed with my physique and my thoughts and it’s working … I went from not even having the ability to get away from bed and stroll to doing 60 concert events this previous 12 months.”
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Alec Baldwin
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs Alec Baldwin was first bitten by tick 20 years in the past, which left him bedridden with chilly sweats and soreness.
“August of 1 summer time I used to be standing on my pal’s porch at evening, and it was a cool night — it wasn’t a sizzling, steamy night — and I felt actually this wave go over my again and over my shoulders and form of wrap round me like a chill,” the 30 Rock star stated of his preliminary an infection in a 2021 podcast interview. “And I bought simply attacked. It got here like somebody snapped their fingers and put a spell on me.”
Baldwin has since skilled extra tick bites. To today, he offers with lingering Lyme signs like “inexplicable” joint ache.
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Riley Keough
Picture Credit score: Karwai Tang/WireImage through Getty Photographs Riley Keough revealed she has Lyme illness in a 2023 Vanity Fair cowl story, sharing that she was in Switzerland to “try to see if I can alleviate it a bit.” The Daisy Jones and the Six star was visiting a “holistic remedy heart” that she stated provided remedies “you may’t actually do in America but, like cleansing your blood.”
Keough added that, whereas she will be able to carry kids, her Lyme illness led her to have her daughter through surrogate. “[I]t felt like the only option for what I had happening bodily with the autoimmune stuff,” she stated.
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Fletcher
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Picture Credit score: STEVEN FERDMAN/AFP through Getty Photographs American singer Fletcher introduced in September 2023 that she’d been identified with Lyme illness and that the illness had been affecting her well being and vocal cords, forcing her to postpone excursions in Europe and Australia. “I began turning into more and more ailing during the last couple years and simply stored pushing although I knew there was one thing deeper happening,” she wrote on Instagram. “Lyme has affected me in quite a lot of methods and whereas it has not solely taken an amazing toll on my bodily physique, it has additionally triggered concern for my voice as effectively.”
The “Bitter” singer vowed to carry out for followers “greater and higher… and most significantly, stronger than ever subsequent 12 months.”
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Avril Lavigne
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for MTV/Paramount G Avril Lavigne’s Lyme illness signs left her bedridden for the higher a part of two years, the singer-songwriter revealed in a 2018 cowl story for Billboard magazine.
“I’m achy, I’m fatigued, I can’t get the f*ck away from bed — what the f*ck is flawed with me?” Lavigne recalled of her early days battling the tick-borne sickness. Her extreme fatigue prompted her to hunt medical consideration, but it surely nonetheless took years for medical doctors to precisely diagnose her.
Lavigne’s signs had been so debilitating, she was compelled to take a break from making music. It wasn’t till 2018 that she lastly felt wholesome sufficient to write down and carry out once more.
“Having gone via the battle of my lifetime, I’m stronger than ever and looking out ahead to sharing my renewed voice and vitality for my life with my followers via this new music,” she wrote on her web site that 12 months, per TODAY.
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Justin Bieber
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for The Met Museum/ Justin Bieber first opened up about his Lyme prognosis in 2020. On the time, the pop singer was fielding many disparaging feedback about his look.
“Whereas lots of people stored saying Justin Bieber appears to be like like shit, on meth and so forth. they failed to understand I’ve been lately identified with Lyme illness, not solely that however had a severe case of power mono which affected my, pores and skin, mind perform, vitality, and general well being,” Bieber wrote on Instagram, per CNN.
“It’s been a tough couple years,” he added on the time, “however [I’m] getting the precise remedy that can assist deal with this up to now incurable illness and I shall be again and higher than ever.”
Bieber later detailed the “scary signs” he endured in a 10-part autobiographical YouTube series referred to as Seasons.
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Amy Schumer
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for Paramount+ Amy Schumer revealed her Lyme prognosis in a lighthearted Instagram post from 2020, which featured a throwback pic of the actress and comic as a baby.
“My first ever fishing pole,” Schumer wrote to her 12.9 million followers. “Anybody get LYME this summer time? I bought it and I’m on doxycycline. I’ve perhaps had it for years. Any recommendation? Can you’ve gotten a glass of wine or 2 on it? I do know to remain out of the solar.”
She signed off her put up on a extra severe be aware: “I additionally wish to say that I really feel good and am excited to do away with it.”
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Ben Stiller
Picture Credit score: Michael Buckner/Selection through Getty Photographs Ben Stiller revealed he suffered from Lyme illness in 2011, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he contracted the ailments in Nantucket, MA, a number of years earlier. “My knee turned infected and so they couldn’t work out what it was, then they discovered it was Lyme,” the Zoolander star stated on the time. “I’m symptom-free now, however Lyme doesn’t ever go away your system. It’s a very powerful factor.”
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Kelly Osbourne
Picture Credit score: Gilbert Flores/Billboard through Getty Photographs Kelly Osbourne suffered from undiagnosed Lyme illness for years, taking a number of prescription painkillers to deal with the ache. It took a tripe to another drugs practitioner for Osbourne to lastly study that Lyme illness was behind her signs, which included every part from a sore throat and stomachaches to a seizure in 2013. “I had stage III neurological Lyme illness,” Osbourne wrote in her 2017 memoir, There Is No F*cking Secret, per US Weekly. “I used to be relieved to lastly know what was happening,” she continued, “however I used to be additionally scared s—tless.”
Osbourne started stem cell remedy to “strengthen my immune system so my physique might struggle off and do away with the illness by itself,” which she described as a “extra full and lasting treatment” than antibiotics. “I used to be experiencing feelings and emotions once more,” Osbourne recalled of her time receiving remedy. “I’d been in a diseased and doctor-approved drug-induced haze for therefore lengthy that I didn’t know what it was wish to be joyful or unhappy or in ache.”
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Alexis Ohanian
Picture Credit score: Jesse Grant/Sportico through Getty Photographs Tech government and Mr. Serena Williams himself, Alexis Ohanian, revealed a shock Lyme illness prognosis on X in July 2024. “Doing a full battery of well being scans, checks, and so forth, and discovered I’ve lyme illness,” he wrote on the platform. “Wild.” Ohanian defined that he wasn’t experiencing any signs however was nonetheless planning to get handled.
Ohanian went on to clarify {that a} cherished one had had the illness a number of years in the past, who confirmed “tons [of] signs… simply couldn’t determine it out till they examined him for it after which discovered it (handled it efficiently, too).” Ohanian additionally famous that he doesn’t spend a lot time within the wilderness or the northeast, the place ticks are widespread, so “this was fairly a shock,” he stated. “Anyway, gonna seize some antibiotics — can’t maintain me down, tick!”
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Parker Posey
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs When Parker Posey first skilled crimson flags of Lyme illness in 2009, her signs compelled her to withdraw from a starring role in a Playwrights Horizons’ manufacturing of This.
The beloved indie movie actress has stored her well being journey pretty personal, though she did speak out in 2009 about how holistic interventions helped ease her signs after present process a course of antibiotics for Lyme.
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Ramona Singer
Picture Credit score: Gilbert Flores/WWD through Getty Photographs Actual Housewives of New York Metropolis star Ramona Singer shared her Lyme illness prognosis with followers in 2020. Singer instructed E! News that she’d began feeling unwell round Valentine’s Day of that 12 months and visited a health care provider for a full blood panel. The outcomes led to a Lyme illness prognosis, and Singer began taking an antibiotic for signs.
“You could get examined annually, particularly if you happen to’re in an space the place there are deer,” stated Singer, who believes she picked up a tick chew within the Hamptons. Thankfully, she added, “We caught it early and I’m very fortunate and really blessed.”
