actress selma Blair turned heads at the
Oscars on Sunday walking proudly with
her custom-made pain on the red carpet
then she opened up about having multiple
sclerosis she was diagnosed last year in
her first-ever television interview on
this topic she was very candid she sat
down with ABC's Good Morning America and
Robert Rob Robin Roberts and Blair
shared that one of her current symptoms
has affected her speech take a listen my
speeches you'll notice is I have spent
spasmodic dysphonia is interesting to
put it out there to be say this is what
my particular case looks like right now
a little scared of talking and even my
neurologist said no this will bring a
lot but we're so joining me now to
discuss this is dr. Kalina Sanders and
neurologist at Baptist and also an MS
specialist thank you for coming in it
was interesting cuz she went on to say
that you know no one has the energy to
talk on camera again her neurologist
said don't do it and she said I love
cameras this is what I do
I mean kudos to her being so brave and
bringing awareness to a subject that not
a lot of people understand tell us first
how MS affects the body yes so ms is an
autoimmune condition that affects the
nervous system usually the immune system
fights bacteria and viruses but in
certain patients it actually starts to
attack normal tissue and that tissue is
the brain the spinal cord and the optic
nerve depending on the location will
determine what type of symptoms a
patient will have right and she talked
about the fact that it took years for
her to get diagnosed that she first
started to see those symptoms when she
had her son and then after that things
just got progressively worse but she
went from Doctor to doctor and finally a
doctor said hey let's check out and see
if it's MS and it was yes although we've
made great advancements in to the
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis it's
still a variable disease process and not
everyone is the same so there is some
difficulty in making that diagnosis very
early on but using things like MRI
spinal taps were able to make that
diagnosis as soon as we can and she said
once she had that diagnosis she felt
relief
because now it made sense why she was
feeling this way and she talked about
the fact that she has relapses she
called them and you said there days when
you'll feel great and then you'll have
days when you just don't want to get out
of bed
correct it's estimated that now almost a
million people in the United States have
multiple sclerosis and of those about
eighty-five percent of them have what we
call relapsing remitting disease where
they have good days and then they have
bad days and those bad days can consist
of a flare sometimes we call it an
exacerbation or a relapse and that will
result in any type of neurological
symptoms that may result in them having
difficulty walking difficulty seeing and
may result with them being in the bed
some days and as far as her her speech
is that something that she sees get
better at times because she put in their
hash tag I'm a working actress thank all
the producers and people who are working
with her yes so definitely so the in the
nervous system does have the ability to
repair itself and there are times where
your symptoms actually do get better but
if we stress the simple system where you
become overheated or you have an
infection we might find those old
symptoms returns so she may see that her
her speech gets better but on certain
days where she's not feeling well and
she may have more trouble what type of
therapies are most beneficial so for
most of our patients with multiple
sclerosis they benefit from physical
therapy occupational therapy and
probably for selma Blair a speech
therapist would be helpful and she also
said in the interview which I thought
was amazing that her doctor told her
within a year 90% of her symptoms could
be gone correct so as I mentioned before
that a nervous system can repair itself
so if over time their symptoms may get
better and watching this video I mean it
was one of the most touching things the
Oscars that night and the man who was
there everyone giving kudos to him he's
taking care of her making sure that
she's fine with her custom-made pain if
you're having this opportunity to raise
awareness about MS it's a gift for dr. I
agree and it's very timely because we're
embarking upon MS Awareness Month which
is in March so this is great timing for
us to see and become aware of multiple
sclerosis yeah well kudos to her the
world is rooting for her was interesting
she said she talked with Michael
jukebox and made a connection with him
and he has Parkinson's and she was like
oh I have his email I can keep in touch
about them so they're supporting each
other exactly and that's what we find
with patients with chronic neurological
conditions they really own their disease
and they are empowered and they strive
to do what they can to improve their
lives watching in a year we're hoping
that show the others anyone else who's
struggling we are rooting for you as
well and know that things can get better
so if you would like to read more about
Zama Blair's diagnosis and what she said
during that interview with Good Morning
America we have all this information on
news for Jax column telling you if you
have a moment today take a moment
because it is inspirational what she's
been able to accomplish and the hope
that she has for her future you'll find
this story under the entertainment
section