Celine Dion is the subject of an event documentary, which is released this Tuesday, June 25. She talks about the evil that has kept her away from the stage for many months. Suffering from stiff man syndrome, she had already spoken about this rare neurological disease in a video message posted several weeks ago.
While the Canadian star has been suffering from muscle spasms for months, as shown in the documentary “I am: Céline Dion”, broadcast on Prime Video from this Tuesday, June 25, she had already revealed that she was suffering from stiff man’s disease . A rare disease that affects around one in a million people. This neurological pathology is characterized in particular by “fluctuating rigidity of the trunk and limbs, painful muscle spasms (…), a tendency to jump in an exaggerated manner and ankylosing deformations, such as a frozen lumbar posture”, explains the portal of rare diseases and orphan drugs Orpha.
It particularly affects women, since 2/3 of patients are female, and mainly occurs around the age of 45. The symptoms can evolve over months or years, notes the platform, specifying that “progressive muscular stiffness leads to immobility of the trunk and hips and the gait becomes stiff and particular”. Difficulties that the star partly seems to be experiencing. In her video message, Celine Dion admitted that she “sometimes has difficulty walking”.
The vital prognosis can be engaged
There are variants of stiff man syndrome, such as stiff limb syndrome which affects only one limb or, more serious, progressive encephalomyelitis with rigidity and myoclonus, known as PERM in English, which can in the worst case be life-threatening, particularly due to respiratory failure.
While a large majority of people suffering from this pathology carry a certain type of antibody, stiff man syndrome could belong to the family of autoimmune diseases, characterized by a dysregulation of the immune system, which instead of defending the organism attacks it.
Treatments exist
Treatments based on benzodiazepines and baclofen or immunomodulatory therapies, particularly used to prevent organ rejection during a transplant, can be used. “Treatment allows symptoms to be controlled in the majority of patients with stiff man or stiff limb syndrome,” specifies the Orpha platform.
For her part, Céline Dion explained not to give up and to be well surrounded. “I have an excellent team of doctors at my side who are treating me so that I get better,” explained the artist. And to emphasize: “I train every day with my sports medicine therapist to regain strength and endurance to allow me to perform again, but I must admit that it is a continuous battle”. Unfortunately, this could not prevent her from canceling all her concerts planned in Europe until April 2024, although she tried to reassure her fans by explaining that they should be able to be postponed.
