Missy Elliot Reveals She’s Suffering from Graves’ Disease

One of the most appreciated female rappers of all times, Missy Elliot, is speaking out to explain why she’s been mostly absent from the spotlight for the past 3 years: she’s suffering from the incurable Graves’ disease.

In a statement to People magazine, Missy says she was diagnosed with the disease in 2008 and, so far, she has chosen to battle it without telling a soul about it, save her close friends and, of course, family members.

The effects the disease had on her body have been severe, leaving her almost unable to perform even the simplest, routine things, E! Online writes.

“I was [driving and] trying to put my foot on the brake, but my leg was jumping. I couldn’t keep the brake down and almost crashed,” Missy says in her People interview, the aforementioned e-zine informs.

“I couldn’t write because my nervous system was so bad – I couldn’t even use a pen,” says the rapper.

Things only got worse shortly afterward: she was suffering from severe mood swings and started losing her hair.

The latter accentuated when she began radiation treatment but it eventually helped her with her hyperthyroidism.

Not everything is bleak though, and Missy is keeping a positive outlook even though the disease is incurable: in those diagnoses early, such as herself, the disease is manageable.

In fact, she says, she already sees definite improvement.

“I’m 30 pounds lighter because I’ve been exercising. My thyroid is functioning, so I haven’t had to take medication in about nine months. [But] you live with it for the rest of your life,” Missy says.

Missy is also getting back to work, her condition now under control. In the same interview with People, she says she’s been working on a comeback album with super-producer Timbaland.

On June 29, the brand new season of VH1’s Behind the Music premieres with an episode on Missy Elliot in which, as per reports, she will also talk about being abused as a child.