Star Trek's Zoe Saldana reveals she is suffering from autoimmune disease

The actress said she had changed her diet to try and tackle the condition

(Getty)

The Star Trek actress Zoe Saldana, whose latest film is opening this weekend, has revealed that she has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that also affects her mother and sisters.

The 38-year-old actress said she had been told that she too had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and was trying to tackle it by changes to her diet. The disease turns a person’s own immune system to target the thyroid gland, causing symptoms that include fatigue and depression. It is more common in women than in men.

“I had a great time in my twenties,” she told Net-a-Porter. “Then your doctor says you’re losing calcium in your bones…I would hear those conversations with my mom and grandma, thinking I’d never get there. I’m going to live forever. But all of a sudden it hits you.”


 Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone in ‘Nina’, which released in April

Saldana, who played the lead role in this year bio-epic Nina, told the news site that she and her husband, Marco Perego, are both already following gluten and dairy-free diets as way to help the issue.

“Your body doesn’t have the energy it needs to filter toxins, causing it to believe that it has an infection, so it’s always inflamed,” she said.

The actress, who plays the part of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek Beyond, said she also found it important to surround her self with positive people.

“I learned early on that in order for me to be okay, I need to surround myself with better people than me,” she said.

“I’m not being hard on myself, I’m being honest with myself. I have the tendency to get lost in whatever environment I create for myself. And I’m an artist; I’m prone to vanity. So I look to better people than me – my husband, my sisters, my parents and my friends.”