Many people know Wendy Williams from her famous television show but the celebrity actually got her start in radio. Starting in 1986, she didn’t spread her wings to television until 22 years later when she got her own show. She has also hosted television shows, held acting roles, and been a guest judge on several reality series.
Williams’ talents haven’t been confined to being onscreen, however. She has written books, launched her own production company, released music, launched a fashion line, and been the executive producer of a number of television shows. With so many things on her plate, she’d gotten used to a very busy schedule.
Then she fainted during a live taping of the Halloween edition of her talk show in 2017. While she had attributed it to low electrolytes at the time, she made an announcement about the state of her health in February of the following year. She announced that she was dealing with Grave’s disease and that her doctors advised her to take three weeks off to rest.
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Since then, Wendy Williams has been open about her symptoms, treatments, and the steps she takes to deal with the illness.
In fact, she has addressed them several times on her talk show and most recently said that “life has completely changed” while talking about changes in her medication regimen. She continues to battle the chronic illness, though, and has been hospitalized from its complications on different occasions and has needed to make even more changes to her beloved talk show.
Grave’s disease is an autoimmune disorder in which your immune system attacks the thyroid gland and causes it to produce more hormones than your body needs.
Your thyroid function is important because these hormones affect almost every organ or system in the body. When there’s an excess of thyroid hormones, your organs tend to work faster than they need to and the result can be seen in some of the typical symptoms of the disease.
For example, people with Grave’s disease often have an irregular heartbeat, shaky hands, trouble sleeping, inexplicable weight loss, and excess sweating. Some people also develop Graves’ ophthalmopathy where the disease attacks the muscles and tissues around the eyes resulting in puffy eyes, light sensitivity, bulging eyes, as well as blurred vision.
Diagnosing Grave’s disease includes a thorough physical examination, a discussion of your symptoms, and thyroid function tests.
These tests usually include blood tests, a thyroid scan, a radioactive iodine uptake test, and a Doppler blood flow measurement (Doppler ultrasound). Depending on your health or the results of the initial blood test, your doctor will determine how to proceed with other tests and treatment.
Since Grave’s disease is a chronic condition, doctors focus on treating the illnesses that result from Grave’s. Primarily, this is hyperthyroidism so you may be prescribed medications such as methimazole, that are meant to reduce the output of hormones from the thyroid gland.
Another option is radioiodine therapy where you’d consume radioactive iodine. Over time, this iodine will break down the thyroid.
Finally, your doctor may opt to remove the thyroid gland entirely through surgery. In that case, you may need to take medications to handle the effects of having no thyroid hormones in your system.
If you’re dealing with Graves’ ophthalmopathy as well, your doctor will develop a program for that. In mild cases, eye drops to ease irritation and sunglasses to handle light sensitivity is usually enough. In more severe cases, steroids and surgery are the likely options. Radiation therapy will only be considered in rare situations.
Though you might not have heard of anyone else having Grave’s disease, statistics show that Black people are twice as likely to be diagnosed with it. If any of the symptoms listed above sound familiar, it might be a good idea to take Wendy’s advice and “put yourself first.”
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