Loading…

Christina Applegate never had MS: how often multiple sclerosis is misdiagnosed | WTF America - media kit | The Receipts - Dataspheres AI

Five years after an MS diagnosis, Christina Applegate was told she never had it. Studies say she is far from alone. Watch Christina Applegate never had MS:...

Five years after an MS diagnosis, Christina Applegate was told she never had it. Studies say she is far from alone. Watch Christina Applegate never had MS: how often multiple sclerosis is misdiagnosed (5 min), with captions The stories Never MS On October twentieth, Christina Applegate said doctors told her she never had multiple sclerosis. Her symptoms are real, and they're getting worse. So the question is bigger than one actor: how often does this happen? Who is Christina Applegate? First, who is Christina Applegate? Applegate is an actor, known for Married with Children, Dead to Me and the Anchorman films. Christina Applegate is an Emmy winner. In twenty twenty-one she announced she had MS, and by twenty twenty-four Applegate walked with a cane. What she said Applegate shared the news on her podcast, MeSsy, co-hosted with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has MS. Christina Applegate said her doctor told her she does not have MS. And she said: I had every symptom of someone with MS. Every single one. How she found out How did Applegate find out? In twenty twenty-one she was diagnosed after a spinal tap and MRI scans that showed spots in her brain. This year, Applegate's doctor paused an infusion treatment to watch her B cells, a kind of immune cell. They didn't change. And the doctor concluded it was never MS. Where she is now Where is Christina Applegate now? Her numbness, tingling and balance problems continue. Applegate spent months in the hospital earlier this year and does physical therapy three times a week. Her doctors start looking for the real cause next week. In her words: I'm back at square one. What is MS? So what is MS? Multiple sclerosis is a disease where the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms differ from person to person. Numbness, balance, vision, fatigue. Nearly one million Americans live with an MS diagnosis, and the cause is unknown. Why it's hard to diagnose Here's why it matters. There is no single test for MS. Doctors combine symptoms, MRI scans and spinal fluid tests, using rules called the McDonald criteria. But spots on a brain MRI can also come from migraine, aging and other conditions. On the podcast, Cedars-Sinai neurologist Marwa Kaisey said almost one in five people told they have MS don't actually have it. What misdiagnosed patients really had A twenty sixteen study looked at a hundred ten people misdiagnosed with MS at four academic centers. What did they really have? Most often migraine, twenty-two percent. Then fibromyalgia, fifteen percent. Then vague symptoms with spots on an MRI. The cost of a wrong MS diagnosis And the cost. Seventy percent of them took MS drugs they didn't need. One in three stayed misdiagnosed for ten years or more. Seventy-two percent had an earlier chance at the right diagnosis. And thirty-one percent were harmed by it. The other side Now the other side. Most MS diagnoses are right, and MS drugs help people who have the disease. Treating early protects the brain, so doctors move fast. The twenty twenty-four update to the diagnosis rules aims at faster, more accurate answers. And Christina Applegate's symptoms are real. The cause just isn't known yet. What people can do So what can people do with a diagnosis that doesn't fit? Ask the doctor: what else could explain these symptoms? Get a second opinion at an MS specialty center. Bring every scan and test result. And ask whether the diagnosis meets the current McDonald criteria. Follow the WTF America community for the next one. Listen The episode as audio Download and post Every file of this edition, with its ready-to-paste titles, descriptions and tags. Distribution kit Download the videos, audio, captions and carousel, or use the prepared post text below. Preview the carousel Videos Video 16:9 (1080p MP4) Vertical 9:16 (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) Vertical highlight Raw audio Final mix (lossless WAV) Final mix (MP3) Voice only (lossless WAV) Captions Captions (WebVTT) Captions (SRT) Highlight captions (SRT) Script Script (plain text) Instagram carousel Carousel (ZIP of slides + caption) Ready to post YouTube thumbnail (1280x720 JPEG) Highlight cover (1080x1920 JPEG) Post pack: titles, descriptions, chapters, tags (JSON) Links Podcast episode Podcast RSS feed The deck Watch page (share link) Carousel caption Christina Applegate said doctors told her she never had multiple sclerosis, five years after her diagnosis. Her symptoms are real and getting worse. A Cedars-Sinai neurologist said almost 1 in 5 people told they have MS don't have it, and in one study 70% of misdiagnosed patients took MS drugs they didn't need. What MS is, why it's hard to diagnose, and what to ask. Follow WTF America: dataspheres.ai/pages/wtf-america #MultipleSclerosis #ChristinaApplegate #Health #WTFAmerica Post to each platform YouTube Upload the full video in YouTube Studio. Paste the title, description and tags into their matching fields. Add the thumbnail and captions. Review audience, synthetic-media disclosure