DWTS’s Carrie Ann Inaba Opens up About Sjögren’s Disease and ‘Living in Pain'

Dancing with the Starsjudge Carrie Ann Inaba, 58, is opening up about her health journey and living with Sjögren’s (pronounced show-grins) disease. In a recent conversation to promote her partnership with Novartis—which received a Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for its investigational Sjögren’s treatment called ianalumab—the reality TV star shared intimate details about her health struggles, the symptoms she experiences daily and how she’s learned to cope with the autoimmune disease.

“I have Sjögren’s disease, and it is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect various parts of the body,” Inaba told Woman’s World. “Every time I start talking about how it’s been, it sends me and my brain down a rabbit hole, because it’s so intense for me. I’ve lived with a lot of pain. I’ve lived with incredible fatigue. Along with that comes some depression from not being able to do the things you used to do, from being isolated from having to cancel plans all the time for having unpredictable health, which comes along with having autoimmune disease, and it’s just been a long road.”

“That’s why I’ve teamed up with Novartis, because I want to raise awareness,” she continued. “This is genuinely something that I wish had happened when I was younger.”

To learn more about Inaba’s journey with Sjögren’s, keep reading.

What is Sjögren’s disease?

“Sjögren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease that causes your immune system to damage the glands that generate and manage moisture in the body,” explains Bryn Kanuck, LAC, DAcCHM, a functional medicine and gut health specialist.

It predominantly affects women (up to 90 percent of adults diagnosed are women), and according to Sjögren’s Foundation, the disease is the second most common rheumatic autoimmune disease in the United States.

“It is commonly characterized by dry eyes, mouth, nose and throat, but other symptoms can impact individuals with Sjögren’s syndrome, including fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, migraines, weakness, dysautonomia,cavities and various digestive issues,” says Kanuck. “Since it is a systemic and chronic condition, other areas of the body can be impacted by it over time, causing organ inflammation, increased infection risk and a higher risk of lymphoma.”

Carrie Ann Inaba’s Sjögren’s disease symptoms

For Inaba, her Sjögren’s disease symptoms included severe dry eyes, scratched corneas and brain fog.

“I had the driest eyes, and I was like, there’s something seriously going on, because it just kept happening,” she recalls. “2013 is when I was diagnosed, and it was an emotional journey to be to live with it, then to be diagnosed with it and then to figure out how to live with it.”

As for her symptoms, she revealed, “I think for each person it’s different, because the thing about Sjögren’s disease is that everybody experiences it differently. That’s what makes it hard to diagnose, I think, as well. It makes it hard for people to believe that you have it. On good days I live like this, and I’m able to interact like this, but on bad days, I can’t and there’s a lot of bedtime. I’m in bed a lot, people don’t know this, but I spend a lot of my time in bed.”

Who’s most at risk for Sjögren’s disease?

When it comes to risk factors for Sjögren’s disease, Cory Rice, DO, chief clinical advisor at Biote, says that gender, family history and medical history can play a huge part.

“A strong risk factor for developing Sjogren’s is being female. Overall, autoimmune conditions affect five to 10 percent of the population, with women bearing a disproportionate burden at 80 percent of cases,” he explains. “Other risk factors for Sjogren’s include having a family history of autoimmune disease, having a personal history of other autoimmune conditions and certain environmental triggers.”

Why Inaba had to advocate for testing

Doctors can diagnose the condition based on your symptoms, health history and a blood test. But it’s important to speak up and advocate for yourself if you feel you’re being dismissed or medically gaslit, as Inaba learned firsthand.

“At first, they didn’t want to test me for Sjögren’s. Eventually, I got the correct test after someone suggested I go to a rheumatologist,” she recalls. “They did the blood tests, and that is what gave me the official diagnosis. I was very grateful to finally know what was going on with my body, because it was very scary.”

Sjögren’s disease treatment: How Inaba manages her symptoms

Currently, there is no cure for Sjögren’s disease, though treatments being studied (like Novartis’s) are giving patients hope for managing common symptoms. Even so, Inaba has some tips and tricks that she uses to help avoid flare ups, which she says makes it painful to move around.

“[My] flare ups happen usually around October or November [when Dancing with the Stars is in full swing], towards the end,” she notes. “When I didn’t know how to manage my disease as well, I would just push and push and push. As a dancer I was taught the mentality of an athlete—push through the pain. What I’ve learned through the grace of having autoimmune disease is that not all pain needs to be pushed through.”

To help her feel her best, Inaba now prioritizes rest too. “Making sure that I have the resting time is important. With Dancing with the Stars, I only have to speak about 20 seconds at a time, right? So, in between, I can rest. I never leave the judges’ panel—I sit there and I recalibrate my energy, so that I can be aware and alert. It’s live television, and watching that dance, and seeing all of it…I have to formulate what I say, speak it in a way that hopefully people understand.”

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This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 11:54 AM.