Michelle Visage, 51, is part of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line up. But while the star is trying to focus on impressing the judges with her moves on the dance floor, the RuPaul’sDrag Race star has been experiencing some underlying health problems. Just 48 hours before starting her time on the BBC dance competition, Michelle revealed she’d been given the all-clear from Hashimoto’s disease. Hashimoto’s disease is a condition in which the immune system attacks the thyroid.
My skin was crackly dry and my hair fell out in clumps. I was also having hardcore panic attacks
The thyroid gland is part of the body’s endocrine system, which produces hormones that coordinate many of the body’s functions.
Michelle has undergone a 20-year battle with the condition, and in an interview with OK! Magazine, described how it’s affected her life.
“My skin was crackly dry and my hair fell out in clumps,” she revealed.
“I was also having hardcore panic attacks.”
Michelle divulged the cause of her condition was her breast implants, which she got at the age of 21.
It took her 30 years before getting them removed to prevent the condition coming back.
She continued: “My journey goes back to me getting breast implants at the age of 21.
“My body couldn’t fight off the attacker [her breast implants] because it was there 24 hour a day, seven days a week.
“After 30 years of having breast implants and 20 years of suffering with Hashimoto’s, not one doctor told me what it could be.”
In the end, Michelle resorted to a Facebook group where more than 50,000 shared their experiences of the same symptoms from their breast implants.
From this, Michelle made the decision to have them removed, and said since the removal, her thyroid nodule has been going down.
Symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease
The symptoms of the condition may not be obvious at first, but one of the first signs can be swelling at the front of your throat, according to Mayo Clinic.
It explains: “Hashimoto’s disease typically progresses slowly over years and causes chronic thyroid damage, leading to a drop in thyroid hormone levels in your blood.
“The signs and symptoms are mainly those of an underachieve thyroid gland (hypothyroidism).”
Other symptoms can include:
- Fatigue and sluggishness
- Increased sensitivity to cold
- Constipation
- Pale, dry skin
- A puffy face
- Brittle nails
- Hair loss
- Enlargement of the tongue
- Unexplained weight gain
- Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness
- Joint pain and stiffness
- Muscle weakness
- Excessive or prolonged menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia)
- Depression
- Memory lapses
If you experience any of these symptoms, see your GP.
Another Strictly Come Dancing contestant who’s been open about their health in the past is James Cracknell.
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