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Carrie Ann Inaba is a longtime Dancing With the Stars judge and has also joined The Talk, and amid her busy schedule she is dealing with living with lupus.
The 51-year-old opened up about living with the disease on Thursday’s Live with Kelly and Ryan and said she had no idea she even had lupus before the diagnosis. “I was recently diagnosed with lupus, I was actually told,” Inaba shared.
“It’s so weird. I was diagnosed with autoimmune 6 years ago, but my doctor didn’t tell me I had lupus. I was having a colonoscopy and I saw my chart [read] lupus and I was like, ‘This is not my chart,’ and they were like, ‘You have lupus.’” Inaba added that her doctor had “forgotten” to tell her.
“I quit diet coke,” Inaba continued, adding that she also “stopped going in the sun because when you have lupus you’re allergic to UV light, which I didn’t know, so I was causing my own flare-ups.”
She added that staying out of the sun was particularly difficult because “I’m from Hawaii, that’s what we do.”
Six years ago, Inaba was diagnosed with Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA), and thought her symptoms and change in health was due to getting older.
“Once I was diagnosed, it’s like I got my life back,” Inaba added. “I am so grateful. There’s a blessing in some of these health conditions because it gives you a greater awareness of your own health.”
“It makes you take care of yourself and realize it’s a very important component of a healthy lifestyle is to see the doctor regularly, make sure that you’re keeping up all your checkups and getting the right tests.”
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