Daisy Ridley reveals she's been diagnosed with Graves' disease: 'I didn’t realize how bad I felt before'
The "Star Wars" actor is urging people to listen to their bodies.
Daisy Ridley revealed she was diagnosed with Graves' disease last year, after initially chalking up her deteriorating health to a stressful role.
In a new cover story for Women's Health, Ridley, 32, said she was diagnosed in September 2023 with the autoimmune disorder, which causes the thyroid gland to overproduce thyroid hormone, after meeting with an endocrinologist and citing symptoms that included racing heart rate, weight loss, fatigue, and hand tremors.
“I thought, 'Well, I’ve just played a really stressful role; presumably that’s why I feel poorly,'" Ridley said of experiencing the symptoms after the filming of the psychological thriller Magpie, in which she starred as a stay-at-home mother pushed to the brink amidst a crumbling marriage.
When the doctor described Graves' as feeling "tired but wired," past symptoms, including irritability, began to make more sense. "It was funny, I was like, ‘Oh, I just thought I was annoyed at the world,’ but turns out everything is functioning so quickly, you can’t chill out," the Star Wars actor said.
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Implementing lifestyle changes, including adapting a gluten-free diet, exercising and engaging in wellness practices like cryotherapy and acupuncture, and paying more attention to her body, has helped. “I’ve always been health conscious, and now I’m trying to be more well-being conscious,” Ridley said.
"We all read the stats about women being undiagnosed or under-diagnosed and sort of coming to terms with saying, ‘I really, actually don’t feel good’ and not going, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine,'" she added. "It’s just normalized to not feel good."
Related: Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley meets Rey performer at Disneyland: ‘Surrealist!’
And while her diagnosis may be "much less severe than what a lot of people go through" in "the grand scheme of things," Ridley said, "Even if you can deal with it, you shouldn’t have to. If there’s a problem, you shouldn’t have to just [suffer through it].”
Ridley isn't the only public figure to speak about being diagnosed with Graves' disease. Wendy Williams and Missy Elliott have also been open about being diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder. Ridley previously revealed in 2016 that she struggled with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, sharing a statement that urged women to listen to their bodies.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
