Actress Olivia Munn is opening up about her fibromyalgia diagnosis.
Munn recently told People she was experiencing from some unexplained symptoms before learning two years ago she was suffering from the disorder.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain and spinal cord process painful and nonpainful signals.” There is no cure.
“I wasn’t really sure what was going on with me,” the “X-Men” star said. “I was going through a lot of different ailments for years and not knowing what was happening.”
The diagnosis came with major adjustments. “I had to change my wellness routine pretty significantly,” she explained. “I had to be super thoughtful about what I put into my body. I had to start eating gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free — I had to cut out a lot of things that I was used to having every day and things that I really loved.”
Unfortunately, the diagnosis coincided with a work trip to Italy. “If you can imagine, getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and then the very next day flying to Italy to film for a month and being told you can’t have any sugar, any dairy, any gluten. This was literally the next day. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’“
Olivia said she was at a critical point where she needed to follow the doctors’ orders or risk more health issues.
“My situation was at a place where it was like, ‘You’re either going to go down a path where you’re going to get multiple autoimmune diseases, or you have to stop now and we can try to get you better,’ “ she said. “It was like, ‘These are your choices.’ And so I had no choice, I was feeling so bad. I had to really listen to the doctors’ orders and cut all these things out.”
Through it all, she learned to eat what she loves, thanks to a piece of advice from one of her doctors.
The 40-year-old shared, “He said, ‘You need to really work on your gut health, but the most important thing I can tell you is that whatever you eat, you need to really love it. It’s not just about eating the healthy things and you’re not liking it. You have to find what you love to eat and drink because that will make a difference, because all the research has shown that when you’re happy, you create chemicals that are good for your whole body and your gut health as well. When you are unhappy and you’re doing things that you don’t like, you’re eating things you don’t like, you will create other things in your body that are not good for you. In order to keep yourself healthy, you have to find things that you enjoy,’” she says. “That was so impactful for me.”
Munn is managing her fibromyalgia through diet, meditation, and water intake.
“It’s under control as long as I continue to work out and as long as I eat healthy and stick to the restrictions and meditate,” she said. “Those are the really important things.”
