Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for Thurgood Marshall College Fund(NEW YORK) — Fans are welcoming back talk-show host Wendy Williams today after health issues forced her off the air a month ago.
Williams sat down with Good Morning America co-host Amy Robach to discuss how she’s now making her health a priority in the battle against Graves’ disease. Graves’ disease is an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism). Symptoms can include anxiety, weight loss, heat sensitivity, palpitations, fatigue and bulging eyes.
“In the entire almost 10 years of doing the show, I have never taken a sick day,” Williams told Robach. “… it was a perfect storm; a perfect storm that had been brewing, I have to say, internally, knowing my body, since late July.”
Williams fainted live during her Halloween show in October, causing widespread concern about her health. She finished the show and returned the next day saying her tests came back fine.
Williams, 53, now says she had missed three appointments with her endocrinologist prior to the fainting spell, but she’s “functioning OK.”
“I’m feeling a little weird, but I’ll get through it,” Williams said. “And I went [to the endocrinologist] in February and that’s where I found, ‘Whoa, your levels are way off.'”
Williams said doctors advised her to take time off.
“My internist told me I am, if not the worst case of deficient vitamin D that she’s ever seen in her career,” she added. “I have vertigo, which I’ve had all my life and that was affecting my equilibrium. And it was just a mess going on inside of my body, but I’m saved.”
Actor Jerry O’Connellfilled in for Williams during the hiatus, which is the first time Williams has had a guest host in the history of the 10-year-old show.
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