Dancing With The Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba has been on the show for almost two decades, but behind her smiling exterior, the 54-year-old has been dealing with several difficult illnesses.
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Carrie Ann has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, lupus and arthritis, along with Sjögren's Syndrome, all of which mean that even a small illness, such as flu or a sickness bug, can set her back a long way.
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"Last week I caught a little stomach flu," the judge told Health Digest. "For people who have an autoimmune disease, sometimes a tiny cold can set you out into a flare, and it becomes so much bigger."
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Owing to the illness Carrie Ann battles with, she said she has to "manage [her] life with autoimmune disease very carefully."
Carrie Ann said she struggled to get a diagnosis from doctors, often feeling like she was being gaslit to believe nothing was wrong.
Carrie Ann Inaba found it hard to achieve a diagnosis
Symptoms of autoimmune disease can be hard to pin down, but the dancer first knew something was wrong when she had extremely dry eyes. "I used to get dry eyes a lot, and Sjögren's Syndrome is an autoimmune condition where your immune system attacks your moisture-producing glands, so that includes your tears. Your ability to make tears is affected, and so are salivary glands and your skin moisture," she told Health Digest.
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She saw five doctors before she was diagnosed with Sjögren's Syndrome, and at the same time was diagnosed with lupus, while her fibromyalgia meant she was in "immense pain, and the pain wouldn't stop."
Carrie Ann Inaba has ways to manage her conditions
To treat her myriad health conditions, Carrie Ann changed the way she ate, making sure that her body reacted well to everything she consumed.
She also started spending time in hyperbaric oxygen chambers, which take down inflammation and related pain.
Carrie Ann added that moving every day helped with the pain. "No matter how much pain I was in, I did some sort of physical movement," she said. "The longer you go without exercising, the worse it gets."
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