Carly Simon confirms diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

Singer Carly Simon has confirmed that she’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

The 81-year-old entertainer shared a statement with ABC News, which read, “So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease.”

“It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it, and to decide how much I wanted to say about it publicly,” the statement continued. “Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.”

She said it started with arthritis in both knees and one hip, and after three joint replacement surgeries, she thought that her trouble walking was from the procedures and was part of recovery, ABC News reported.

“But my mobility continued to worsen. I had trouble standing up from low chairs and deep couches without someone offering me an arm,” Simon explained.

Eventually she went to the Mayo Clinic, which told her she had the degenerative neurological condition.

The “You’re So Vain” singer is taking medication to combat stiffness and other symptoms.

At the same time as her Parkinson’s diagnosis, she said she was also treated for basal cell carcinoma on her face.

She said the surgery to remove the cancer affected her appearance, and that she was “more self-conscious about being seen in public, The New York Times reported.

During that time, however, while not in the public eye, she was working on new music.

“It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room. It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life,” she said, according to the Times.

Her new song “Howl” has already been released and will appear on the album “Comes In Waves.

“The song begins in anger, but it moves toward forgiveness,” she wrote on Instagram. Simon said “That emotional shift is at the heart of the album.”

View this post on Instagram

What is Parkinson’s disease?

The National Institutes of Health said Parkinson’s disease "is a disorder of the nervous system that affects movement and gets worse over time."

It happens when nerve cells in parts of the brain weaken, become damaged and die.

The disease causes problems with movement and balance, tremors and stiffness. As it progresses, a person may have problems walking, talking, or completing everyday tasks, the NIH said.

About 1.1 million people have Parkinson’s, with that number expected to climb to 1.2 million by 2030. It is the second-most common neurological disease after Alzheimer’s, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation.

0 of 22