Featured Image Credit: John Salangsang/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Women's Health, Celebrity
Jen Thomas
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Women's Health, Celebrity
Christina Applegate says she is incredibly grateful for Selma Blair, after some advice from the star meant she went and had a test for MS.
Selma was diagnosed with MS back in 2018 and it meant she was able to recognise a symptom Christina was suffering with. That's a good friend right there.
Selma told British Vogue about living with multiple sclerosis back in 2023, opening up about her life since receiving a diagnosis and how she urged her The Sweetest Thing co-star Christina to get tested, following a frank chat.
Christina told the magazine: “I was sitting in Selma’s living room, our children playing, and I told Selma I’d been having this weird tingling in my feet.
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"She said, ‘You must get tested for MS.’ [Even my doctor doubted it] but there it was.
"In essence, because of her, I’m going to have a better quality of life."
What a difference one conversation can make.
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Applegate was diagnosed in 2021, and both she and Selma are advocates about the condition.
“If I can help remove stigma or over-curiosity in a crowd for someone else,” said Blair. “Then that’s great.”
Dr. Leah Croll, a neurologist with Temple University, told Good Morning America: "Tingling is certainly one of the first symptoms that patients report pretty frequently.
"It's one of those symptoms and these chronic neurologic diseases that can be a little more tricky and insidious because it doesn't seem so severe at first.
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"But of course, as the disease progresses, later on, other symptoms will come out of the woodwork."
It's estimated that nearly one million Americans have the condition, and more than 2.9 million people worldwide.
Blair added: “I didn’t imagine I could ever make a difference by showing up as myself and being open about my experiences.
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“But when others with mobility aids rallied around my presence on the red carpet with a cane and in the midst of an MS flare, I noticed.
"I felt empowered to share. … Now it’s a conscious choice to.”
Blair's diagnosis came after years of struggle with her health, which was impacting her career: "I was worried since the beginning of time that a glaring fault would remove me from the workforce. Usually it was my incoordination or getting stuck, too weak or sick.”
“I was always terrified I would be deemed incapable. Or mentally unsound.
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“My mother taught me that was death for a woman career-wise.”
Christina says that thanks to Selma her quality of life is better than it was. That's what friends are for.