Topics: Christina Applegate, Celebrity, Health, Women's Health, UK News
Did you know Selma Blair once urged Christina Applegate to get tested for multiple sclerosis (MS) after clocking one symptom?
In August 2021, 53-year-old Applegate announced that she’d been diagnosed with MS - a chronic, untreatable condition that impacts a sufferer’s brain and spinal cord.
MS Society estimates that there are currently over 150,000 people in the UK living with the disease, while the MS Trust says a whopping 7,100 people will be diagnosed each year.
Since revealing her condition, Applegate has remained open and honest about her health.
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In the past, she spoke about how her illness had ‘broken’ her 14-year-old child, Sadie, and has detailed some of the symptoms she’s been experiencing for years.
Applegate also claimed the chronic condition often causes her to ‘lie in bed screaming’ in agony, describing it as a ‘vice grip that just won’t let go’.
In 2023, the four-time Golden Globe nominee credited her Sweetest Thing co-star, Selma Blair, 53, as the driving force behind her devastating diagnosis.
Speaking to British Vogue, Applegate recalled how she and her children were sitting in the her lifelong friends living room when she was encouraged to seek medical help.
"I told Selma I’d been having this weird tingling in my feet. She said, 'You must get tested for MS.' [Even my doctor doubted it] but there it was," she explained.
The Dead to Me favourite continued: "In essence, because of her I’m going to have a better quality of life."
In the same interview, Blair said she never imagined she could 'ever make a difference' to anybody by just being honest about her MS experiences.
"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," she added.
"I felt empowered to share. … Now it’s a conscious choice to."
While Applegate continues to battle against MS, Blair, who was diagnosed with the condition in August 2018, revealed how it felt to be in remission for the last four years.
"A few years ago, I didn’t think I’d be here..." the Cruel Intentions star said in an interview with TODAY in February. "It’s been a long time of learning a new normal."
Despite claiming she had been forced to ‘fake it till she [made] it’ in the past, Blair admitted that she was finally ‘getting back on track’.
Itchy feet aren’t the only symptom of MS that you should watch out for, according to the NHS.
Some other common symptoms include feeling extremely tired, muscle cramps, spasms and stiffness, sexual issues, including a dry vagina, and problems with memory or concentration.
People with the disorder may also experience blurred vision and/or eye pain, as well as feeling off balance, dizzy or clumsy.
There aren’t any actual tests to properly diagnose MS, but doctors may analyse your blood and perhaps take a lumbar puncture.
Despite there being no cure, people with MS may be assigned physiotherapy sessions, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and/or mobile equipment to help them move around.
