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Since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, Christina Applegate has been candid about living with the chronic condition. During a recent episode of her MeSsy podcast, co-hosted with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the actress revealed that she has been hospitalized upwards of 30 times in the past three years.
“They’ve done every test known to man on me, put so much radiation into my body from CT scans to everything else,” Applegate said. The reason for the hospital visits, she explained, have ranged from throwing up to diarrhea to pain. Recently, she started researching potential explanations for the “unimaginable” frequency of these events.
“Lliterally just in the last month, I have figured it out,” Applegate said. “Now, maybe this isn’t what’s happening, but I’m just going to tell you this. Talk to your doctor about motility issues, OK. Because one of the things with MS is that it slows down our organs, you know, not like completely, but there is a slowing of the function of your organs. I have noticed that — and I’m going to be really honest — if I have to poop, I puke. And when I puke, I get all the pain and then all the things happen.” Her point isn’t to steer anyone towards self-diagnoses, but to encourage listeners who have experienced what it’s like to live with multiple sclerosis to advocate for themselves.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates that nearly one million people in the U.S. are living with MS, according to a 2019 study by the organization.
“I’m going into my colonoscopy on Thursday and I’m going to have a conversation with the big guys, ‘I know you guys are saying that I’m crazy and I’m coming in here for no reason, but now I’m seeing a pattern,’” Applegate continued. “My neuro, God bless her, says that’s not an MS thing. So, I’m sorry, there’s got to be a correlation here, and I’m not a doctor. I’m not giving medical advice. I’m just saying, just think about that, OK? Because I’m in the middle of the same exact situation, and it fucking sucks, and it’s scary.”
Last year, on an episode of the podcast, Applegate described the often excruciating pain she endures from the chronic autoimmune condition. “I lay in bed screaming — like, the sharp pains, the ache, that squeezing,” she said at the time. “I can’t even pick up my phone sometimes because now it’s traveled into my hands, so I’ll, like, try to go get my phone or get my remote to turn on the TV or sometimes, I can’t even hold them. I can’t open bottles now.”
