Christina Applegate reveals she's being tested for lupus and Lyme disease after 'devastating' MS misdiagnosis

Christina Applegate has revealed she is being tested for lupus and Lyme disease as doctors desperately search for answers after discovering she was wrongly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.The actress, 54, has spent five years battling debilitating symptoms she believed were caused by MS, only to be told last month that she does not have the disease after all.Now the Dead to Me star has revealed that doctors are actively investigating several other possible conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, as she continues to struggle with her health.Speaking on her MeSsy podcast with fellow actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler on Tuesday, Christina explained that she was undergoing a fresh round of tests.'We're going into square one, just doing some testing and going one by one of kind of the sister diseases to MS,' she said.'You've got RA [rheumatoid arthritis] and you've got lupus and Lyme disease and all these things that kind of can mimic MS. So now I'm being tested for all that stuff slowly but surely.'Christina Applegate has revealed she is being tested for lupus and Lyme disease as doctors search for answers after discovering she was wrongly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (pictured in 2024)The actress has not been diagnosed with any of the conditions she mentioned, and doctors have yet to establish what is causing her symptoms.Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can affect different parts of the body, while Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread through infected tick bites.Both can cause symptoms that overlap with those of MS, which affects the brain and spinal cord. Rheumatoid arthritis is another autoimmune condition, primarily affecting the joints.Christina - who shares a 15-year-old daughter, Sadie, with her musician husband, Martyn LeNoble - first announced in August 2021 that she had been diagnosed with MS, a condition that can cause problems with movement, balance, vision and sensation.She later became one of Hollywood's most prominent advocates for people living with the disease, documenting her struggles with chronic pain, limited mobility and depression.But last month she revealed that her doctor had told her she did not have MS, leaving her without an explanation for the illness that has transformed her life.Recalling the appointment, Christina said her doctor had told her: 'Congratulations, you don't have MS.'Rather than celebrating, she explained that she had been devastated by the news because her physical condition had not improved.The actress, 54, has spent five years battling debilitating symptoms she believed were caused by MS, only to be told last month that she does not have the disease after all (pictured in 2023 with her daughter Sadie) She said she was 'back at square one' and still needed a wheelchair to get to medical appointments because she could not walk from the car to the consulting room.In another update last week, Christina described needing around ten minutes just to get out of bed and keeping a walker beside her bed to help her reach the bathroom.She said her next step was to see a rheumatologist as doctors continued investigating her symptoms.The actress has also struggled to come to terms with losing the diagnosis that had explained her suffering for so many years.Speaking on her podcast this week, she admitted that she found it difficult to stop thinking of herself as someone living with the condition.She said: 'I lived as a person with MS for almost six years. So... it's hard for me to try to shake that identity because it's been my identity for so long.'Christina added that she remained unwell despite the change in diagnosis.She added: 'If there's something I can be doing to feel better, because I don't have the stigma of MS or I don't have, you know, the criteria of that, whatever that is, please let me know.'I am wanting the advice right now. Before it was like, no.'The Married... with Children star has previously spoken about feeling as though she had let down the MS community after discovering she had been misdiagnosed.But she insisted that she would remain involved with the people who had supported her throughout her illness.She said: 'I'll never leave this community. I've made so many lifelong friends and I care so deeply about everybody that we represent and that I represent.'I'm still always going to be a part of it in one way or another.'