Gigi Hadid is so over people commenting on how and why her body has changed over the years, and she decided it’s time to explain: She has Hashimoto’s disease.
When she started modelling at 17, she wasn’t yet diagnosed and was suffering from inflammation and water retention, she said on Twitter. She was also suffering from comments about how she was initially too big to be a successful model.
With Hashimoto’s, the immune system attacks the thyroid, causing it to underperform. Hypothyroidism symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, joint and muscle pain and more, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
“Over the last few years I’ve been properly medicated to help symptoms including those, as well as extreme fatigue, metabolism issues, body’s ability to retain heat, etc...,” Hadid, 22, continued in a series of tweets. “I was also part of a holistic medical trial that helped my thyroid levels balance out.”
“Although stress & excessive travel can also affect the body, I have always eaten the same, my body just handles it differently now that my health is better. I may be ‘too skinny’ for u, honestly this skinny isn’t what I want to be, but I feel healthier internally and am still learning and growing with my body everyday, as everyone is. [sic]”
She encouraged “social media users & human beings in general” to have more empathy and understand they rarely know anyone’s whole story.
“Use your energy,” she said, “to lift those that you admire rather than be cruel to those u don’t.”
Over and out.
