Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley has revealed she has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease.
The 32-year-old told Women’s Health magazine in an interview published Tuesday that she was diagnosed in September 2023 after experiencing bouts of hot flashes and fatigue.
She said she started to feel ill after filming the thriller Magpie in which she plays Annette, a stay-at-home mother whose husband falls in love with a famous actress.
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“I thought, ‘Well, I’ve just played a really stressful role; presumably that’s why I feel poorly’,” she told the magazine.
An endocrinologist explained to her that her symptoms, which included weight loss, hand tremors, fatigue, and a racing heart, were signs of the autoimmune disease.
Graves’ disease affects the thyroid gland and causes hyperthyroidism, when the body produces too much thyroid hormone, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Anyone can get the disease but it mainly affects women and people over 30 years old.
Other celebrities diagnosed with the disease include Wendy Williams and Missy Elliott.
Ridley, who has opened up in the past about her battle with endometriosis, said her Graves’ disease diagnosis made her sad at first, but also pushed her to develop a stricter diet and to listen to her body.
The actor has been vegan for years, but stopped eating gluten after her diagnosis.
“I am not super strict about it, but generally cutting down on gluten makes me feel better,” she said.
Treatment for the disease includes radioactive iodine therapy, in which the patient takes radioactive iodine by mouth to destroy the cells that make thyroid hormones, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Anti-thyroid medicines that block the thyroid from using iodine to make hormones and beta blockers, which block the effect of hormones on the body, are also other treatment options.
Reducing stress and developing a healthy lifestyle, including exercise and a well-balanced diet, can ease symptoms as a patient undergoes treatment, the clinic said.
Ridley said she had always been “health conscious, and now I’m trying to be more well-being conscious”.
The actor said she was intentional about getting rest when her body was tired and has started doing cryotherapy, acupuncture and going to infrared saunas.
“I do a fair amount of the holistic stuff, but I also understand that it is a privilege to be able to do those things,” she told the magazine.
Ridley’s breakout role was in 2015 playing Rey in the first of the Star Wars sequel trilogy films, The Force Awakens.
She reprised the role in The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and most recently played Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, in the Disney film Young Woman and the Sea.
