Daisy Ridley Diagnosed With Graves’ Disease
At first she thought the symptoms were just fallout from a difficult role.
In a recent Women’s Health interview, Daisy Ridley shared that she has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease. The autoimmune disease affects the thyroid, and often first presents as a feeling Ridley’s doctor described as “tired but wired.” At first, Ridley thought she was merely recovering from filming a difficult role in the film Magpie. “I thought, Well, I’ve just played a really stressful role; presumably that’s why I feel poorly,” she said.
Ridley was diagnosed in September 2023, after experiencing hot flashes, fatigue, hand tremors, and extreme irritability. “It was funny, I was like, Oh, I just thought I was annoyed at the world,” she says, “but turns out everything is functioning so quickly, you can’t chill out.” Ridley did not experience one of Graves’ disease more well known symptoms, thyroid eye disease. Also known as Graves’ opthalmopathy, this is a characteristic bulging of the eyes accompanied with puffy eyelids, eye pain, and potential vision loss. Missy Elliott discussed it, after being diagnosed with Graves’ in 2008. “It causes hair loss, your eyes bulge,” she told Billboard in 2015. “My blood pressure was always up from just overworking.” Elliott was diagnosed after a leg tremor almost caused her to crash her car.
Graves’ disease is a chronic condition, and now both Ridley and Elliott are managing it with diet. Ridley told Women’s Health that going gluten free has helped with inflammation associated with the condition.
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