Early Thursday, Canadian singer Celine Dion posted a message on Instagram postponing the continuation of her world tour which was to resume in February.
Dion, 54, said she was recently diagnosed with stiff person syndrome (SPS), also known as Moersch-Woltman syndrome. It’s a rare neurological condition that gives people painful muscle spasms. There is no cure for the disease.
“I’ve always been an open book,” Dion says in the moving video. “And I wasn’t ready to say anything before. But I’m ready now…I’ve been dealing with health issues for a long time.”
The SPS is described by the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as a disorder with “characteristics” of an autoimmune disease. It impacts the central nervous system and causes increased sensitivity to noise, touch, and emotional distress.
“Most often it affects the skeletal muscular system where people have really a lot of pain, spasms that can really affect any muscle in the body,” Johns Hopkins neurologist Dr. Scott Newsome told CTV News. University School of Medicine. Channel Thursday.
Newsome says the condition is becoming more widely known as there are more symptoms associated with it, including eye muscle problems and bowel issues.
“It’s probably underrecognized,” he said.
A hunched or stiff posture is a characteristic of someone dealing with SPS, the USA According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Newsome says it affects twice as many women as men.
For Dion, this condition has an impact on his ability to perform.
“The spasms affect all aspects of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulty when walking and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing as I normally do,” Dion said in the Instagram video.
Newsome says people typically diagnosed with SPS are in their 40s or 50s, but it can also affect children and the elderly.
Although researchers don’t know exactly what causes SPS, Newsome says there are ways to relieve the pain and symptoms.
“My approach is looking at this from a multi-faceted treatment approach,” Newsome said. “The gold standard is to treat people with muscle relaxants, but since it’s an autoimmune disease, we use therapies related to the immune system to help, and then other therapies not pharmacological (such as) occupational therapy.”
As for Dion’s specific case, Newsome says having a “full team” will help him regain some kind of normality.
“By keeping holistic treatment at the forefront of treating people with this disease, I think people can improve their quality of life,” he said.
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