Carrie Ann Inaba, longtime judge on Dancing with the Stars, has shared how she struggled for years with unexplained symptoms before learning she had Sjögren’s disease. In her 20s she began to experience corneal damage, painfully dry eyes and mouth, overwhelming fatigue, brain fog, and widespread pain — changes that made everyday activities, including dancing, suddenly difficult.
After researching her symptoms, Inaba suspected Sjögren’s, an autoimmune condition that damages the glands that produce tears and saliva. When she raised the possibility with an ophthalmologist, she was dismissed — a reaction she says many patients with the condition encounter. Eventually she was referred to a rheumatologist and received a formal diagnosis in 2013. She described feeling oddly relieved: finally she had a name and a direction for finding answers and treatment.
Diagnosing Sjögren’s can take years. Rheumatologist Nina Couette of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center explains the main challenge: the core complaints — dry eyes and dry mouth — are common and can result from many other causes, such as menopause, medication side effects, fibromyalgia, or other autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Because these symptoms overlap with so many conditions, doctors often need careful evaluation and specialized testing to identify Sjögren’s.
The disease is more than dryness. For Inaba, the illness eventually forced her to stop dancing at a time when the fatigue, pain, and flare-ups felt debilitating. The physical loss was compounded by mental strain: anxiety, depression, and the constant uncertainty of not knowing when the next flare would hit. Couette notes that Sjögren’s is a complex systemic autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organs, causing profound fatigue, cognitive difficulties (brain fog), joint and muscle pain, nerve symptoms, and sometimes lung, kidney, or nervous-system involvement.
Learning to manage Sjögren’s has been a long process for Inaba. She emphasizes energy management as her top priority, paying close attention to bodily signals and stepping back when she begins to feel off. Her daily routine mixes movement with restorative therapies: regular yoga and mindful movement to keep joints mobile, rotating joints to promote synovial fluid flow, sleep hygiene, and hydration. She also uses complementary approaches such as acupuncture, Reiki, bodywork, and red-light therapy, and sleeps with a heating pad to ease discomfort.
Couette stresses that lifestyle measures — staying hydrated, getting adequate sleep, maintaining regular physical activity, managing stress, and following a nutritious, balanced diet — can help people with Sjögren’s feel better overall and improve quality of life. Those measures are usually combined with medical therapies aimed at relieving symptoms.
There is not yet an FDA-approved drug that specifically targets Sjögren’s, so treatment currently focuses on symptom control. Medications that stimulate saliva production, such as cevimeline and pilocarpine, can ease dry mouth, and topical or prescription treatments help with dry eyes. For patients with systemic or organ involvement, immunosuppressive medications may be used. Research is active: experimental agents like ianalumab and nipocalimab are being studied in clinical trials and have shown promise as potential disease-modifying therapies that could address the underlying autoimmune process.
Beyond treatment, Inaba has turned her experience into advocacy. She partnered with the SJÖUT for Sjögren’s campaign to raise awareness and share patient stories, a response to how isolated she felt after diagnosis. Finding an online community helped her connect with others who understand the condition and its emotional toll. That support, along with medical care and lifestyle changes, has helped her return to the dance floor; she says she’s grateful to be back and is preparing to judge the next season of Dancing with the Stars.
Inaba hopes increased visibility will lead to more conversations about Sjögren’s, just as dance has grown into a mainstream topic over the years. Her message is simple: better awareness, earlier diagnosis, and community support can make a big difference for people living with this often-misunderstood autoimmune disease.
