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Jenna Jameson shared video footage of herself walking unaided, months after her chronic mystery illness left her relying on the aid of a wheelchair.
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.
Amid her long-running health issues, the Hawaii-based model had been sharing updates on Instagram and Twitter. She returned to Instagram on Tuesday for the first time in almost two months after a long social media absence.
On Thursday, Jameson shared a major update amid her as-yet-undiagnosed illness as she posted footage of herself walking without the aid of any apparatus.
"So, I wanted to show you that, yes, I am walking unaided," the former Playboy model said in the video, with the lens trained on her feet. "I'm so excited. I've just been taking care of myself, working out, building the muscles back and I'm good."
In another clip shared as an Instagram Story, Jameson showed herself on camera as she told her followers: "I just wanted to say hi and, yes, I'm thriving."
The video clips can be viewed at the top of this article.
While Jameson had revealed back in July that she was able to walk to the bathroom unaided, she said that she was "not walking perfectly, but at least I'm up on my feet."
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.
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.
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