Celine Dion has said that she has a disease that affects the nerves.
On Thursday, the Canadian music legend, who is 54 years old, posted a series of videos on Instagram in both English and French to tell her 5.2 million fans the sad news.
The famous singer said in her message:
Hello everyone, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reach out to you. I miss you all so much and can’t wait to be on stage talking to you in person.
As you know I’ve always been an open book and I wasn’t ready to say anything before but I’m ready now.
Watch the emotional video below.
She continued,
I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time and its been really difficult for me to face my challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through.
Recently I’ve been diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder called the stiff person syndrome which affects 1 in a million people.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS) describes the stiff-person syndrome, also called SPS as “a rare neurological disorder with signs of an autoimmune disease.” SPS is marked by changing stiffness in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli like noise, touch, and emotional stress, which can cause spasms in the muscles.
While we’re still learning about this rare condition, we now know this is what’s been causing all the spasms I’ve been having,
Dion added.
NINDS also says that “scientists don’t yet know what causes SPS,” but that patients can be treated with high doses of diazepam and anti-seizure drugs like Gabapentin and Tiagabine.
The singer of “My Heart Will Go On” went on:
Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal chords to sing the way I’m used to.
It hurts me to tell you today that this means I won’t be ready to restart my tour in Europe in February
I have a great team of doctors working alongside me to help me get better and my precious children who are supporting me and giving me help.
In the caption of her post, Dion said that she was canceling eight of her shows and moving the Spring shows to the summer.
Our thoughts are with Dion and her dear ones at this time.
