Selma Blair reveals she's 'in remission' from multiple sclerosis
Aug 17, 2021
Washington [US], August 17 : Hollywood actor Selma Blair revealed that she's in remission from multiple sclerosis and said "my prognosis is great". The 'Legally Blonde' star was diagnosed in 2018.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, she made the revelation to reporters during a Television Critics Association panel. She said it's a result of undergoing hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation.
Blair said, "It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down, so I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed. I don't have any new lesions forming."
"Cognitively, I'm very changed and that's been the harder part," she said via video chat while promoting her documentary 'Introducing, Selma Blair' which debuts October 15 in theatres and begins streaming October 21 on Discovery Plus.
The documentary's director, Rachel Fleit, during the panel, said, "Selma was ready to tell this story in all of its honesty and rawness and truth. She had a few medical emergencies during filming. When she was like, 'Yes, show it all,' I was like, 'This is extraordinary.'"
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society describes multiple sclerosis as "an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body."
The cause of the disease is still unknown but it is believed to be a combination of environmental and genetic factors. The organization notes that there are an estimated 1 million people living with multiple sclerosis in the United States right now.
Blair called getting the multiple sclerosis diagnosis "very isolating" but leaned on her 10-year-old son, Arthur, and friends and family for help.