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Dec. 27, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:53
Yolanda Hadid Opens Up About Battling Lyme Disease | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 124 | Full Episode
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Today on Oz...
There were many days that I really didn't want to live anymore.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Foster speaks out about her fight against an invisible disease.
Somebody must have a cure.
Her desperate search for answers.
You went to 11 countries.
Visited with more than 100 doctors.
And her response to the critics who say she's making it all up.
People started insinuating that I was crazy in the head.
Coming up next.
We'll save lives today.
We'll save lives today.
You guys ready to get healthy?
Today, a Dr. Oz exclusive.
Yolanda Hadid Foster is here, the embattled star from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, not going by the name Yolanda Hadid, and she's speaking out for the first time about her four-year health struggle.
She's going to reveal how her illness put a strain on her family and marriage, and the drastic measures she's taken to get control of her health.
It's a side of Yolanda you have never seen before, and I hope it will inspire anyone fighting for their own health.
Yolanda Hadid grew up in a small farm town in Holland before her striking good looks and stature led to a major modeling contract at age 16. For the next 15 years, Yolanda conquered catwalks all around the world, before eventually settling into marriage, motherhood, and life in Los Angeles.
After weathering a divorce, Yolanda raised her three children as a single mom.
And then she married again in 2011, this time to Grammy Award-winning music producer David Foster.
Then Yolanda joined the cast of the hit Bravo series Real Housewives of Beverly Hills the following year.
Yolanda, her supermodel daughters Gigi and Bella, and her son Anwar were now certifiable Hollywood royalty.
But behind the scenes, Yolanda's health inexplicably deteriorated, under attack by a mystery illness.
And in 2012, Yolanda was diagnosed with Lyme disease, which she says two of her children are also battling.
Today, she continues to fight the chronic condition and forge on as an advocate for others who battle invisible disease.
Yolanda is here!
Well, you look good. you look good.
Thank you.
So, it's been four years now that you've been struggling, chasing a cure.
Yes.
And so, part of the reason I wanted to have you on the show, and I am honored that you decided to come here and talk for the first time about what you've been suffering through, is that there are so many women.
Yeah.
Who have versions of what you have.
There's an epidemic of women who feel washed out, they're tired, foggy, they have chronic aches and pains oftentimes.
So let's start with a cause that is potentially involved in you, but it's thought about a lot across America.
It's Lyme disease.
You've heard about Lyme disease, but you really know what it's about.
Take a look.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection usually transmitted by the bite of an infected black-legged or deer tick.
Often the tick is so small its bite goes unnoticed until symptoms appear.
Frequently starting with a bull's-eye rash and potentially progressing into fever, fatigue, aches, pains, even facial palsy.
Lyme is often called a mystery illness or the great imitator because the symptoms are so broad and can mimic so many other diseases.
Lyme disease is caused by a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borella burgdorferi.
It can be successfully treated with antibiotics if caught early.
But unchecked, it can affect many different organs, including the brain and nervous system, muscles and joints, and the heart.
In cases of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, lingering chronic symptoms can even appear after treatment.
The CDC estimates 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme every year.
But because diagnosis is so difficult, experts believe the real number may actually be much higher.
You're shaking your head like this.
Well, because, you know, when I got sick four years ago, when I started researching about this, the CDC then said 300,000 people that, you know, get sick every year.
We're now four years later, and somehow that number hasn't changed.
So these numbers are just not correct.
What was the first time you felt that something was wrong?
I think in about 2011, I started to always feel like I had a flu.
Like, then joint pains.
Then I started seeing a cycle under my eyes, like rings under my eyes that would come back every three, four weeks.
And after that, it started attacking my brain.
In 2011, I remember a month before my wedding, I was in the gym.
And I'm trying to do my push-ups and my burpees.
And I looked at my husband-to-be and I said, you know, I can't do it anymore.
Like, it felt like a light switch went off.
And then I remember the day before my wedding, I only had 100 guests.
And all of a sudden, I couldn't put things together anymore.
Like, I couldn't put tables together.
I only had to make 10 tables of 10. But I couldn't remember anymore who was friends with who, who was sitting with who.
Well, usually, you know, I... The more things you would throw at me, the more I would thrive.
I think my success in my life till then was about juggling 100 things at once.
So I had you send us your records, and my medical team had been pouring through these with me.
This is the last year or two of stuff.
I mean, there's a lot of material.
That's probably only a tenth of it.
It might be, and we're going to tell that story as well.
But I did notice, going through your records, that you actually were hospitalized at age 12 for...
Something that sounded like a severe fatigue.
Yeah.
And then you had several other bouts in your life.
If I remember correctly, 18 and 30 and 41. So different times in your life, sort of spread out.
Yeah.
Were those similar to what happened when you were getting married to David?
No, I think that when I was young, first of all, I was born to a mother that was suffering from, you know, invisible chronic disease.
She would get severe migraines and be in bed with the curtains closed for two, three days at a time.
And, you know, the first time I got sick, You know, was with Epstein-Barr.
And I had severe fatigue.
Then I moved, you know, I think early 20s to Tokyo.
I was modeling there, had acupuncture.
And all of a sudden, you know, I started getting yellow and flew back to America, went to the doctor here in New York.
And he said, well, you have hepatitis.
Do you do drugs?
And I'm like, no, I'm from Holland.
I don't do drugs.
Well, you have hepatitis B. And I found out that they used dirty needles at that time with acupuncture.
So I've kind of struggled with this really my whole life.
So you've been struggling for enough time that you've learned about your body.
Yeah.
You get hospitalized again from what I can see from the records in 2012. Yeah.
And they had extensive testing at that time.
And they diagnosed you with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Yeah.
Which we have talked about on this show and seems to afflict in some form so many women.
Well, I mean, chronic fatigue syndrome is really an umbrella of underlying causes.
So when they sent me, when I was in the hospital for almost, I think, two weeks, you know, it was disappointing to get, you know, I mean, I had circles on.
I knew that something, I had an infection in my brain that was showing a cycle.
And I knew it because I lived it and I'd seen it for that whole year.
So to get to the hospital and then get, you know, sent home with, you know, With chronic fatigue syndrome was just such a disappointment.
The biggest struggle was always that I looked normal.
I would read some of the reports and it says, beautiful 48-year-old young woman.
Who says that in a medical report?
You always get judged by the way you look.
It was just so disappointing to a point where I would just Cry to David, go like, if one more person tells me I look beautiful, I just might jump out of my skin because it was such an insult because I was so, you know, so ill.
You know, like I had no brain function.
I would just sit there and like lay in the fetus on the, you know, on the table and have them check me so many times and do tests and, you know, they just couldn't figure it out.
So you go back to Europe, go to Belgium.
Yeah.
And I cried the entire 12 hours on that flight.
I was in a wheelchair.
They put me on the flight.
The minute I, an hour into the flight, you know, I had so much inflammation in the brain that I cried the entire way there.
And I came with a huge binder of a complete workup.
And he looked at that and said, you know, that still doesn't give me any answers to diagnose you with chronic fatigue.
Let me do some testing.
Unfortunately, it's the old-fashioned way.
It's going to take six weeks to get any answers.
And I waited six weeks.
And then he called back and said, you know, you have severe...
Chronic neurological Lyme disease.
You need to start antibiotics today.
And that day I went to the hospital.
I had a port placed and started a 90-day hell of, you know, three times a day IV antibiotics.
And that was really the beginning of the journey.
Did you feel relief with that diagnosis of Lyme disease?
Yeah, I started crying because, you know, People started insinuating that I was crazy in the head.
You know what I mean?
So, finally getting that diagnosis was like, thank you God.
Like, I prayed every night, just somebody just understand this, you know?
So, do you have any idea where you were bitten?
How it happened?
You know, I raised my three children on a horse farm in Santa Barbara, and the only thing I can remember is being bit by a horse fly because it really hurts.
So you kind of remember it maybe two, three times in the 12 years that I was there.
But I'm such a town boy anyway.
You know, if I would have seen Airbrush, I was probably...
Make a cross, put some spit on, and then say, okay, let's keep going.
Let's get on the next horse.
You know what I mean?
I'm not that kind of a girl that would go like, oh my god, I have a ring, let me go to the doctor, right?
We come back.
What happened when Yolanda was first treated for Lyme?
She reveals the surprising details.
That's next.
Next.
You went to 11 countries, visited with more than 100 doctors.
A four-year search for a cure against an invisible disease.
Uncovering the mystery of chronic Lyme.
Yolanda reveals some of her most unusual and startling treatments.
Next.
Pear.
Banana.
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We're tossing those out and rewriting the book.
I'm giving you a whole new way to look at your body.
Find out which one you are to maximize weight loss results and what to eat for your body type.
This actually looks like a pancake, doesn't it?
Plus, how this pair of jeans can make any body type look 10 pounds thinner.
That makes you look amazing!
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back with Yolanda Hadid, who's doing her first interview ever about her four-year search for a cure for Lyme disease.
So when you were first diagnosed, they put you on antibiotics.
What was that like?
It was like probably what hell looks like.
I mean, it was just so intense, you know, sweating on the bathroom floor, just praying to get through that time.
But even with the antibiotics, you weren't cured, so to speak.
You still had the issues.
Yeah.
So just to summarize this, again, we have a lot of documents, and I do want to thank you for sharing this all openly, but you went to 11 countries.
Yeah.
All these countries.
11 different countries that she went to.
Visited with more than 100 doctors.
Both in this country and overseas.
In her search for the cure, she often went to some very unusual treatments.
Take a look.
For Yolanda Hadid, battling chronic illness has become a full-time job and a global endeavor as she relentlessly seeks experts and treatments worldwide in her quest for a cure.
This was my list of symptoms.
It really started with chronic migraines.
I lost all my hair, memory loss, hard to focus.
I mean, this is probably too long of a list to go over.
And I started with all, you know, the blood tests, the diagnosis of what they found.
So these are, you know, the Lyme disease and all the co-infections.
And these were all the conventional medicine that I tried.
These are all the alternative medicine that I did.
And I called it Uncovering the Mystery.
Welcome to my home.
My half-empty home.
We'll be starting my morning treatment and this is just part of my daily routine.
Yolanda's life has become a relentless battle against chronic disease and she spends her days seeking out relief.
This is my treatment room.
It's more a necessity than a luxury at this point.
Patrick, my nurse, comes here probably three, four days a week and does IV treatments, not just for me, but also for the children, Bella and Anwar.
Daisy's a health advocate.
Daisy really came on board because even though I don't have the brain function, every day of my life is spent on research, learning about new treatment, on chronic disease, Lyme disease, on viral overloads, parasites, I mean, all the chapters that I've been through.
This is a binder of all of the labs and reports that I put together of mostly 2015. There's some earlier labs as well.
Today's home treatments also include an ionic footbath, which Yolanda believes removes toxins from her body.
It's a crazy experience.
I mean, obviously, you know, I'm just learning about it.
We're on our way to Dr. Colinello, who is the physical therapist of the Clippers, and has been working on me for the past six, seven years probably.
I spent so much of my life in bed for the past four years that I have a lot of atrophy in my, you know, in my muscle, in my body.
Tight in this IT bed right there.
I've had so much pain in my hip joint, my left hip joint and my knee.
You're breathing, still shut off a little bit, take a big breath out.
How can you fix all those big boys from the Clippers?
That's a piece of cake.
Yeah, and why can't you do that for me?
So we're on our way to Dr. Kang in beautiful Koreatown in Los Angeles.
I see him once a week, once every ten days.
I'm sweating.
I'm tired.
A lot of night sweats.
A lot of night sweats.
Finger.
Touch for the jaw right there.
Nice one left hand up.
Three lines of reflex point.
This one especially make it strong.
Especially this one.
That point is a toxicity.
Liver and toxicity.
What makes you so great is that you are very open to conventional medicine.
I bring all my medication from, you know, everywhere and he tests on my body so we kind of blend everything in together.
See you next week.
Alright, see you next week.
Thank you.
So another day at the office for us, right?
That's right.
Yes.
But I think we're making progress.
So we talk a lot about alternative approaches.
Yeah.
Do you have any regrets on the journey you took, the ones you may have tried that didn't work so well?
You know, you're so desperate that you want to believe anybody that comes up with something that is off the mainstream path.
But, you know, there's a lot of things that I did afterwards going like, especially now with my brain function coming back, I go like, oh my God, was I crazy?
Did I really walk into Tijuana covered with a baseball cap and black glasses and stand in line with all the people at the border, you know, to go and get...
Fetal stem cell shots from, you know, some guy that wrote a book.
But, you know, it's like I've done shady things.
But I was just like, no, I'm either going to get this, you know, or I'll die tomorrow.
But, you know, I'm going to die trying.
I'm not, you know, just going to lay there and wait for this to go away because it's not going away.
How much money do you think you've spent?
You know, I don't know.
But it's a lot.
You know, it's...
More than anybody should have to.
You know what I mean?
Alright, up next, a shocking discovery inside Yolanda's body and the surgery that finally gave her some relief.
We'll be right back.
Next, Yolanda's doctors find something in her body completely unrelated to Lyme disease.
They saw big black dots.
The turning point in her quest to get well.
The brave and difficult decision she had to make.
It made a huge difference and it saved my life.
Next.
We answer 99 of your biggest food questions, starting with artificial food coloring.
Why are so many dyes banned outside the U.S.? There are about half a million that we estimate are probably affected by food dyes.
Plus 98 other burning food questions.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Thursday.
Yolanda would, uh, would love to see you in her room.
I'll bring you through.
Oh, okay.
Like a looky-loo in opening closets.
What's in there?
I know, especially closets.
But there's one closet that's got all her meds and that's quite impressive.
Can I look?
Yeah, come follow me.
Holy Moses.
Okay.
Oh my God.
Holy.
This is way bigger than I can even process right now.
I've never seen anything like this before ever in my life.
It's serious business.
We're back with Beverly Hills housewife Yolanda Hadid.
So there was a shocking discovery made within the last year in your body.
Yes, thank God.
Thank God.
I'd love if you could share with folks what was found.
You know, it's funny because I came back from a treatment in Germany and David said, you know what, you're not doing one more thing until you go for another body scan.
And the next day we went to do the body scan and somehow they saw big black dots, like under my collarbone, under my armpit, under my rib cage.
And, you know, when we figured out that it was silicone of an old leakage from 10 years before that, when I was water skiing, fell and broke one of my implants.
And, you know, when they replaced the implants, they said, we cleaned it all out and, you know, you're fine.
So this is what an implant looks like.
If I understand correctly, you're saying that 10 years ago in that skiing accident, you hit this, you smacked it hard and cracked this.
Yeah.
So it went flat.
Yeah.
You know, so I knew it was broken, and I went to the doctor, and he said, well, we'll replace him.
I cleaned out the entire, you know, pocket.
So come on up here.
Let me show you some images.
And it's sort of an interesting series of scans you sent us.
So this is the first.
This is a scan.
Obviously, the breasts are up here.
Yeah.
And the red stuff is where a lot of blood is, so the heart and big vessels are here.
Yeah.
But this over here is not supposed to be here.
Yeah.
So you decided to have explant surgery.
Yes.
Where the implants were removed and this leakage would be cleaned out.
So here's footage of that actually.
You're in the operating room.
Big team, by the way.
It's not as simple as it seems.
And they're making incisions in a cosmetically acceptable way beneath your breasts.
And then they're peeling out the material that's stuffed in there.
And that's what the implant that they took out looks like.
Isn't that fascinating?
Look at the drop of, I mean, I don't know if you can see in there, there's a drop of silicone.
We'll put a picture up here.
We have an image of that.
I mean, look at this.
This is a drop of silicone.
I mean, this is, if you look at this implant, you know, this is all leakage from an old, you know, implant 10 years prior.
And how fascinating is this, is the pocket that the body creates in order to, you know, once you put silicone in the body.
I mean, whoever thought, whoever said big fake books are sexy anyway.
You know, I've been saying that for a long time.
I mean, I'm looking at this now going like, okay, whoever started this crazy thought, the big libs, the cheeks, the big boobs, I mean, aren't women, we should just be sexy coming from the inside, right?
You are.
You are exactly sexy from the inside.
Just to be clear.
This helped you feel better.
This actually made a difference.
It made a huge difference, and I think it saved my life.
You know, I'm still dealing with all my viral overload.
I'm still dealing with, you know, the Lyme disease, but I don't think I could possibly have stayed alive with this free-floating silicone in my body.
All right.
Coming up, Yolanda's going to answer the critics who say she's making this all up.
Plus, she now says two of her children have Lyme disease.
We're going to tell you about that when we come back.
Next.
The disease doesn't stop with Yolanda.
Now it's affecting members of her family.
What it's like to watch her children battle this chronic illness.
It's heartbreaking because life is tough enough for children.
And what she has to say to the accusers who claim she's exaggerating.
Next.
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I'm giving you a whole new way to look at your body.
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That's coming up tomorrow.
It hasn't been fun.
It's been a long four years.
But so I guess I keep myself motivated, one, for my children, that I need to cure before they, you know, go on with their adult life.
And the time is now.
And, you know, it's just got to get done.
And if it's not me, then who's going to do it?
I'm back with Yolanda Hadid.
It's very emotional to watch that.
Yes, it is.
And the Lyme disease is not just affecting you, it's affecting two of your children, Anwar and Bella.
What's it like as a mom, watching them go through this?
You know, it's...
It strikes the deepest core of hopelessness inside of you.
Because as a mommy, we are fixers.
We want to, you know, solve their problems and give them a fair chance at a happy life.
And, you know, at this moment, my hands are tied behind my back.
Because I don't have the answers, you know, and it's heartbreaking.
Because life is tough enough for children, you know, like Bella.
I mean, she's just starting her life, you know, working and trying to thrive in the world to have to deal with these severe symptoms every day.
What are her symptoms?
You know, for Bella, it started in her spine.
Bella wanted to be a professional horseback rider, and her dream was to go to the Olympics.
She's been on a horse every day of her life since she's two years old.
And all of a sudden, you know, she started making mistakes, like all of a sudden, and big accidents start happening.
And, you know, I was already in bed, you know, very ill.
And she would come home with big bruises and I said, Bella, you know, you got to stop writing.
We need to figure this out.
And I had her tested and she, you know, has Lyme disease as well.
It's not as severe as mine, but it's, you know, brain fog and not being able to, you know, like I said, it showed up in her writing.
You mentioned earlier that your mom had chronic illnesses when you were a child.
Yeah.
So you actually saw the child's perspective.
There she is.
She's so cute.
Yeah.
All right.
Just take your time.
Yeah.
You know, it's funny because I never realized that my mom...
You know, dealt with chronic disease her whole life, but as a child you don't understand that, you know what I mean?
But it took my own journey to really understand her journey.
And how was your journey affecting your children?
You know, my children is what kept me alive.
I remember just waiting for them to get out of school, you know, just to give them a hug and look at them for, you know, for hope.
I mean, they're the ones that kept me fighting and wanting to live.
There were many days that I, you know, I really didn't want to live anymore.
But when you look at your children, it's not a choice anymore, right?
You have to.
You have to get through.
You have to keep fighting and searching to get well.
Your mom probably thought that about you.
Yeah, of course.
How do you think your illness is changing your children?
You know, they grew up so quickly.
You know, I'm superwoman.
I used to be superwoman.
I used to be, you know, super mom, never missed a game, had all the, you know, 20, 30 kids come for swimming parties, flipping pizzas, making hot dogs.
I mean, you know, our house was always the place to go to.
And, you know, that all of a sudden, I dropped off planet Earth.
All of a sudden, all they saw was their mom in a robe every day, seven days a week, you know, months, years into years.
So I think it made them, you know...
It made them grow up all of a sudden a lot faster.
And, you know, there were nights where Gigi, at 3 o'clock in the morning, had to drive me to the emergency room because I had such severe inflammation in my brain that I'd be bawling, like, on the floor, like, please take me to the hospital.
So, you know, and not just Gigi driving, Anwar and Bella in the back of the car and the three of us going to the hospital.
And, you know, they've been there.
I mean, they learn to take charge and go, like...
You know, be my strength.
So how does that affect them?
You know, I think it, you know, it opened their heart and, you know, getting in touch with their own spirit, right, and their own strength.
As you're struggling with all this, with your family, your kids, mom, David, you're facing criticism from places that you probably wouldn't have expected.
The Beverly Hills Housewives show, I see it all the time.
Lisa Rinna is making comments about your medications earlier, but there was also conversations about Munchausen syndrome.
This is just a little clip where I think you're being accused of faking it or exaggerating it.
Take a look.
When you left, When my nurse wrote me the definition of Munchausen disease, that was the biggest f***ing blow I've ever had in my life.
And I'm sorry about that, and it didn't come from me.
Sorry is not enough.
I think the old Yolanda's coming back.
Yeah, you know, I mean, I was so severely mentally compromised that I really couldn't fight for myself anymore.
You know, funny enough, right after my breast surgery, I kind of, you know, had this bright moment.
But it's fascinating, you know, the judgment that I've endured from family, from friends, from people at work.
I mean, those are, you know...
People that I work with, I mean, that I've known, some of them have known me for years.
I mean, I have such an extraordinary life.
When I got sick, I just got married.
I mean, my children, we moved to Malibu.
I mean, look at my girls.
Don't you think that I would be front row at the Chanel show in Paris, watching my two girls, you know, at a fashion show?
Don't you think that's where I would be?
I mean, you know, To be judged like that, it's such an insult to your integrity as a woman.
You know what I mean?
Nobody would choose to stay in bed 24 hours a day for that many years.
But I also look at the show now I want to try to take away the positive of it.
I look at it and I go like, you know what?
They really opened conversation about what's really going on in today's world.
Because there are millions of people that suffer probably worse than I do, that are housebound, that have no voice, and they've lost all their friends, their family, because the world has so little compassion today.
And if you can't, if you didn't lose your hair and you can't say, okay, I have cancer, You know, that people know and understand and have learned to be compassionate about.
They judge you.
And, you know, it's just unconscionable.
Because nobody fakes a disease.
Coming up next, how Lyme's affecting Yolanda's marriage.
Stay with us.
Coming up next, Yolanda's disease takes on a new role as it tears apart her marriage.
David never changed, I changed.
How she finds inner strength to keep on fighting and remembering the person she once was.
I'm not the woman I used to be.
Coming up next.
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Did I get it right?
Do you think we should walk today?
I can't, I can't.
You ask me this every day, and every day I have to save you.
I can't.
It gets hilarious.
The minute I, you know, David and I got married, I, you know, I got sick.
Obviously, it has been very taxing on my relationship.
We're back with Yolanda Hadid.
So, you announced recently that you've separated from husband David Foster.
Yeah, that's a sad story.
I'm still processing it myself, so I'm not really able to To really talk about it, but it's part of this journey, I guess.
I try to stay focused on the higher purpose of my journey and stay focused on finding a cure that's affordable for all and keep bringing awareness to chronic invisible disease that millions of people suffer for.
I've got a little note here from David.
I came out to visit with you, David, about a year ago.
And I remember at the time you were pretty much bed bound, had trouble even going outside.
You mentioned the light that was bothering you.
And I was touched by this note.
He said, "I have always had and continued to have "the utmost respect and love for Yolanda.
"I'm incredibly proud of Yolanda's determination "and mission to find a cure, "and how brave and open she has been "by sharing her story in the hopes "of changing the future of others." What does having David's support in this voyage of yours mean to you?
You know, it means the world to me, because he's the person that was, you know, there most of the time, and he knows the facts.
So, you know, he's walked his journey with me.
But, you know, The patient suffers, but the caretakers, you know, suffer too, because life doesn't only change for us.
It changes for the person that's next to you.
And, you know, at the end of the day, David never changed.
I changed.
And unfortunately, you know, these are the cards that life dealt me.
It wasn't by choice.
But I'm not the woman I used to be.
and I probably will never be again.
You know, it's my focus, my energy goes to, you know, trying to get well, trying to make a difference, trying to find a cure for my children.
And, you know, David's life is really out, you know, traveling, going to concerts, loud music.
I mean, I couldn't...
You know what I mean?
I can barely listen to the radio.
So, you know, it just...
You know, life changes.
Do you remember the person you were before this all started?
The old Yolanda?
Absolutely.
You know, I... You know, I think I'm...
I've spiritually grown so much.
I'm a different person today, but I dream about that girl that would go, you know, on a one-hour run and was in the gym five, six days a week.
And, you know, I just signed up for a marathon in Mamet in July.
I don't even know if I'm going to make it there, but I just...
A marathon?
Like a half a marathon.
And I'm not going to run it.
I'll probably, hopefully, walk it.
But, you know, I'm goal-oriented.
You know, I... I need to get back to that person because I now have so much work to do.
And I need my brain.
I need my energy.
And I'm not going to stop until I can put my running shoes on.
Coming up, there are several women in our audience today who feel many of the same symptoms as Yolanda.
She's going to answer their questions.
that's next.
Coming up next, our audience shares their struggles Some days are so difficult, I can't get out of bed.
Galanda's messages of hope and what their similar journeys mean to her.
Don't take no for an answer.
Don't ever stop.
Wait for the next day to come.
Coming up next.
How this pair of jeans can make you look 10 pounds thinner.
And how to maximize weight loss based on your body type.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
There are many women in our audience today who are also searching for relief, and they have questions for you, Yolanda, if you're okay with this.
Yes, of course.
Go ahead.
You won the lottery.
Hi, I'm Lauren.
Hi, Lauren.
I've also been struggling for four years, and you've been such an inspiration.
I've been following you on The Housewives, and I really admire how you put yourself out there the way that you do.
Do you ever regret being on The Housewives or being so public with your disease?
You know, obviously I'm human.
And there's moments that I sometimes, you know, want to regret it, but you should never regret anything you do in life.
And, you know, it's given me a huge platform, you know, to bring awareness to chronic disease in general.
And I hope to write a book and to really share with the world, you know, what I went through, what I did in detail.
And for that, I'm grateful to Bravo.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Hi Yolanda, I'm Colleen.
It's been really tough to watch the housewives, their criticisms.
Do you think they realize the damage they're doing to you?
And then has anybody surprised you in a good way, the way they've reacted to you?
You know what, I don't think they're damaging me.
You know, I am very strong in my shoes and I let it roll off my back always the best that I can.
And like I said, I think they've opened the conversation of what people in the real world deal with.
Because anybody here that deals with chronic disease knows that that's really what people are thinking.
And you know what?
When you're dead ill, most people really lose their strength and their self-worth.
But God gave me this special gift that I'm just able to somehow endure it and let it roll off my back and just stay laser focused on where I'm going.
And I'm going to get there, no matter what they say.
Thank you.
Hi, Yolanda.
My name is Samia and I've also suffered for so long and I am so deeply inspired by you.
I had to move from Florida back home to New Jersey so that my family can take care of me when I got really sick.
And some days are so difficult I can't get out of bed.
So, what is it that you do that you can offer for me on your toughest days?
You know, listen, in my worst days, I go into silence and I really connect with that little voice deep, deep inside of me.
And it's the relationship with that and my faith that gets me through every day.
And I know what you're saying.
I mean, it's a dark, dark...
Journey, because there's no answers, but you know, don't take no for an answer.
Don't ever stop.
Even the days you can't get out of bed, you know, wait for the next day to come, because it will, it does change, and we are going to find a cure.
Yolanda, you must get thousands of messages, notes, similar to the wonderful woman who've asked you questions today.
What does it mean to you to have people who are struggling reach out for answers and sharing their issues?
You know what?
I never knew how big this problem was.
And I mean, I just started sharing a little bit on social media because I was just frustrated that people didn't know, you know, that I couldn't find a diagnosis.
But, you know, the people inspire me now.
Like, I look at them going like, oh my God, they need a voice.
Most people don't have a platform.
And I'm grateful, you know, to Bravo for having given me this platform.
And I'm going to use it to bring awareness.
I don't need to sell any bags at QVC. I don't need to go and, you know, you know what I mean?
That's not my journey.
This is, you know, it's a much bigger cause.
A lot of folks are afraid, though.
Yeah, and you know what?
We don't need to be afraid anymore.
And I think by sharing and keep talking about it, you educate even your own family.
Show them blood results.
You know, tell them to go Google and research.
Because I think people judge people.
What they don't understand.
So it's our job as a chronically ill, and there's millions of us out there, to educate the world and see if we can, you know, at least open some of these, even if we open one, two people at a time, to open their heart, because we all have compassion in our heart.
People just don't show it anymore.
And it's time for that to change.
All right, we'll be right back.
We answer 99 of your biggest food questions.
Starting with artificial food coloring.
Why are so many dyes banned outside the U.S.? There are about half a million that we estimate are probably affected by food dyes.
Plus 98 other burning food questions.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Thursday.
I'm back with Yolanda.
During your quest to heal yourself over these last four years, what's been the most surprising thing you've learned about yourself?
Patience and really, you know, the journey to my own soul, you know, and my own strength.
I think that that's the biggest lesson, my faith.
You know, I think that's I know it's a difficult journey.
You're still on it.
But I want to applaud you for being as meticulous as you've been to endless research, to detailed organization to find the answers that folks out here desperately need.
Yes.
Your case is complicated and it is mysterious.
Yeah.
My medical unit and I poured through countless documents, which may not be the whole thing, but they actually took the opportunity.
I didn't know what to get you as a gift, but this might be something that's helpful to you.
This is actually a spreadsheet of the tests this year, and the results.
I'll scroll this up, but I actually do this for a reason.
You mentioned earlier, very humbly, that you have resources, and you've dedicated your life to finding a solution.
Yeah.
It's so complicated.
It's a multifaceted, you know, disease, and, you know, you've seen it.
I'll keep following your story if you're willing to share it with us.
Yes, I want to share it, and I want to show all of you how, you know, we're going to fix this, and we're going to get to the end.
Thank you.
You can see Yolanda on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills using us on Bravo.
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