Celebrities who live with a chronic illness often become advocates and ambassadors for their illness, raising awareness and offering comfort and hope to others who suffer from the same affliction. Here are seven celebrities who are living with chronic illness and working hard to raise the profile of their condition according to prevention.com and celebzen.com.
Sinead O’Connor
Sinead O’Connor is a controversial Irish singer-songwriter whose physical and mental health struggles have played out very publicly. One of the reasons she stepped back from the limelight in 2003 was due to the pain and exhaustion that came with suffering from fibromyalgia.
O’Connor managed to get her career back on track two years later when she said that she had found a way to manage the condition as best she could and deal with life knowing that it’s rarely perfect and lowering her expectations accordingly.
Jillian Michaels
Jillian Michaels rose to fame as the no-nonsense physical trainer on the hit show The Biggest Loser. Initially, she kept the fact that she had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis to herself because she thought it would damage her reputation as a health and fitness expert. However, she came clean when questioned why she had decided to adopt rather than have her own baby.
Michaels has found that diet and exercise have helped her manage the pain from both conditions.
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