"Look at this.
It's not a filter, it's not an app, it's just my face.
Look how elastic it is, ”says Jameela Jamil to her millions of subscribers on TikTok and Instagram.
In this video posted on Tuesday, December 27 on her social networks, the British actress and host films herself facing the camera stretching the skin of her cheeks, which is visibly very stretchy.
A malleability that is neither the result of natural skin slackening due to age, nor the work of digital retouching.
“The reason why [my skin] is so elastic is because I have something called EDS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome,” she explains, thus demonstrating one the main symptoms of this disease characterized by skin hyperelasticity,
Jameela Jamil says she suffers from hypermobile EDS (hEDS), the only type that has no known genetic basis and is therefore diagnosed by clinical criteria.
“I am hypermobile.
As you can see, nothing bends the right way,” continues the heroine of
She-Hulk: Lawyer
in the video while demonstrating with her arm.
Clumsiness, migraines, dislocation
The interpreter of Tahani Al-Jamil in the series
The Good Place
then lists everything that EDS causes on his body on a daily basis: “It is a very serious disease that affects every part of your body and even your mind (. ..) It makes you clumsier, sometimes it makes your joints swell.
It makes you fall apart.
Make your teeth work harder.
(…) You suffer from migraines”, she says.
She also mentions a possibility of predisposition to forms of neurodivergence, but also a link with other pathologies such as PoTS (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome) or MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome), which she says she suffers from personally.
Read alsoLena Dunham reveals she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
“I am lucky to have been diagnosed at the age of 9.
I avoided doing things that would have made me even sicker growing up.
I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't take drugs because I fear that I am already disadvantaged by my state of health”, she confides, encouraging her subscribers to consult a doctor if they feel concerned by the same symptoms.
“Go see a rheumatologist if you think you might have any of these things.
If you bruise very easily, if your joints are hurting (...), find out before it's too late, before a doctor makes a big mistake because you didn't know that you had that.
It can really save your life,” she concludes.
Testimonials
Known for her committed speeches, the activist actress took advantage of this message to make a point.
In a postscript note to her Instagram post, Jameela Jamil first apologizes for not “having spoken more often” about her illness, explaining that it was because of the malicious people who had harassed her on the networks. social in the past.
"The internet made fun of me because of my health problems and it made me suicidal for a while," she wrote on the social network, before announcing that she will no longer self-censor herself: “I'm tired of not talking to the people concerned by this extremely important subject (…) Let's raise awareness together, and save a few f * tain lives!”.
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The TV presenter has been praised by her community in the comments of the publication, where many testimonials thanking her for her speaking out are pouring in.
“Thank you so much for raising awareness about EDS.
I was diagnosed at 24 and if I had found out earlier, I could have started to treat my body and my mind with a lot more empathy and love,” says a subscriber.
“It's incredibly hard to find someone who understands what we go through day in and day out.
Thank you for sharing your story and making me feel less alone,” one person also wrote.
“It's pretty cool to see someone with such a large audience like yours talking openly about this condition.
It really helps to normalize it,
In France, the prevalence of different types of Ehlers-Danlos syndromes is estimated at 1 case per 5,000 people, which makes them rare diseases within the meaning of the European definition.
(1) Source:
Public Health Information Service
