Christina Applegate says she will keep advocating for MS community after misdiagnosis

Left · 1Christina Applegate returned to the "MeSsy" podcast to say she will keep advocating for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) even though she has been told she does not have the disease. 1 Left · 1Speaking to co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was diagnosed with MS in 2001, Applegate said: "I'm still your warrior, and I'm still going to speak out on your behalf forever and ever." 1 Mixed · 2Applegate said she announced an MS diagnosis in 2021 and retired from acting after the finale of "Dead to Me" the following year; she then co-founded the podcast to share her experience and raise awareness. 1 2

Mixed · 2On an episode a week earlier (21 October), after a seven-month break from the podcast, she tearfully said new technology had led to the discovery of the misdiagnosis. She recalled her doctor saying, "Congratulations, you don't have MS." 1 2 Mixed · 2Applegate said she had not improved and in some ways was worse, putting her "back at square one" with no explanation of what is wrong; she said her doctors would investigate why this happened since 2021. 1 2 Mixed · 2In the latest episode she said it took her 10 minutes to move off her pillow, get out of bed and stand, that she almost could not walk to the bathroom, and that a walker now sits beside her bed. 1 2

Mixed · 2She said she felt she had "let everybody down" after becoming a prominent MS advocate, and that she remains in "a state of shock". 1 2 Right · 1The Daily Mail reported that Cedars-Sinai neurologist Dr Marwa Kaisey told the podcast there is no single test for MS, that diagnosis rests on a list of criteria, and that almost one in five people told they had MS did not have it. 2 Right · 1The Daily Mail also reported, citing TMZ, that Applegate was hospitalised in Los Angeles from late March and went home in August; her representative declined to comment on her treatment and said she has a long history of complicated medical conditions. 2