Jenna Jameson has returned to social media for the first time in almost two months to reveal that she is "healing" amid her mystery illness.
The former adult film star, 48, has been living with an illness that saw her misdiagnosed with the rare autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome back in January, as muscle atrophy in her legs left her unable to walk unaided and reliant on a wheelchair.
Amid her long-running health issues, the Hawaii-based model had been sharing candid updates with her Instagram and Twitter followers. However, she fell silent without explanation over the past several weeks, with her last post shared on September 1.
Following expressed concern from her fans, Jameson returned to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal that she was receiving treatment for her as-yet-unannounced illness.
Sharing a close-up photo of herself, the former Playboy model wrote: "Healing. Back on the mainland for treatment. Love you guys."
The post was met with an outpouring of positive comments from Jameson's followers, a number of whom revealed that her social media silence over the past several weeks had caused concern.
On August 25, Jameson revealed that she had contracted COVID-19. Two weeks earlier, she denied that she had HIV after a Twitter follower questioned her.
Jameson took to Twitter to share a photo of an intravenous tube in her arm as she underwent chelation therapy, which she explained was to remove metals from her blood.
She informed one of her followers that the metals had accumulated in her blood from the MRI scans she has undergone during her illness, adding that "the contrast into me poisoned me."
Amid the questions and messages of support, one person asked in a tweet directed at Jameson: "I hate to ask but is it HIV?"
"No... that's random... but no," the mother of three wrote in response.
"The industry presented this risk," the person who posed the question replied, in apparent reference to Jameson's past career as an adult film star.
In July, Jameson revealed in a video message that she is now able to walk to the bathroom unaided, after months of relying on a walker and wheelchair.
"I want to show you guys that I'm walking unaided," she said in a post that showed her feet as she walked. "I mean, I'm not walking perfectly, but at least I'm up on my feet.
"So guys, I'm feeling better. I am able to walk pretty well. How cool is that? I'm feeling a lot better."
Jameson had been previously released from the hospital in February, after doctors spent several weeks treating her and attempting to diagnose her illness.
Back in April, she revealed that she had been working with a therapist who deals with "memory, like cognitive issues," explaining: "Since all of this went down, I have like lapses in my memory. My short-term memory is trash. It's just trash."
She then went on to explain that medical professionals had informed her that her memory may have been negatively impacted by the stress of her illness.
Jameson also said she had started taking supplements after discovering that she had "very low" thiamine levels.
"We're still kind of looking for answers," she said in a video shared on social media. "One thing that's happening is that I have very low thiamine levels, which can affect a lot of different things in the body, including walking. Go figure.
"I think that my lack of thiamine in my body is definitely not helping... So I am taking a lot of vitamin B1 and doing a lot of physical therapy and hoping for the best. So keep me in your prayers."
Thiamine, which is found naturally in a number of foods and can be taken as a supplement, plays a vital role in energy metabolism and in the growth, development, and function of cells, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Early stages of a thiamine deficiency can cause "weight loss and anorexia, confusion, short-term memory loss, and other mental signs and symptoms; muscle weakness; and cardiovascular symptoms (such as an enlarged heart)," according to the government agency.
Jameson's fiancé Lior Bitton said on Instagram back in January that the model had been "throwing up for a couple weeks," which led to her initial hospitalization. She underwent a CT scan before doctors sent her home, according to Bitton.
"Then she came back home, and she couldn't carry herself," Bitton said. "Her muscles in her legs were very weak. So, she wasn't able to walk to the bathroom.
"She was falling on the way back or to the bathroom. I would have to pick her up and carry her to bed. And then within two days, it got really not so good. Her legs started to not hold her—she wasn't able to walk."
Uncommon Knowledge
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About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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