Christina Applegate has spoken about the 'unimaginable' pain of living with multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own cells.
MS is a lifelong, incurable condition that can severely hamper a person's life and cause significant problems.
Applegate, 53, publicly revealed her MS diagnosis in 2021 on social media, saying: "It's been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition."
Since then, the Dead To Me actress been open about the impact MS has had on her life, and launched the MeSsy podcast alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler to speak about it.
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In a recent episode of the podcast they took some messages from listeners, including one called Kelly who said she'd been 'throwing up and having diarrhoea every single day' that her family didn't understand.
Applegate spoke up to share her own experience and said she thought it may be a symptom of MS.
"Oh girl, let’s talk about that," the Anchorman star said. "This is really important because for three years, since I was diagnosed, I've been in the hospital upwards of 30 times from throwing up and diarrhoea and pain that is unimaginable.
"They've done every test known to man on me, put so much radiation into my body from CT scans to everything else. And literally, just in the last month, I have figured it out. Now maybe this isn't what's happening, but I'm just gonna tell you this.
"Talk to your doctor about motility issues, okay? Because one of the things with MS is that it slows down our organs - not, like, completely, but it there is a slowing of the function of your organs, and I have noticed that - and I'm gonna 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."
The actor said she was 'going in for my colonosocopy' soon and have a conversation with doctors about what the cause of it might be.
She said that a neurologist had told her 'that’s not an MS thing' but she found it interesting that someone else with MS was going through the exact same symptoms as her.
Empathising with Kelly, Christina said she was 'in the middle of the same exact situation', admitting 'it f**king sucks, and it's scary'.
In the past, Applegate has opened up on feeling like a 'burden' because of the toll MS was taking on her, and on other episodes of her podcast she spoke about the mental health impact of the condition as she said it left her in a 'depression'.
She said: "This is being really honest... I don't enjoy living. I don't enjoy it. I don't enjoy things anymore. If someone can come over and lay in bed with me and talk, like you have and like a girlfriend of mine did the other day... that's enjoyable. I enjoy that.
"But if someone's like, 'let's get up and go for a walk' or 'let's go get a coffee', I'm like, I don't enjoy that process."
Joe Harker