Celine Dion has revealed that she is battling a neurological disease.
The 54-year-old Canadian music icon took to Instagram on Thursday to announce the devastating news to her 5.2 million fans in a series of video posts spoken in both English and French.
In her message, the legendary singer said: "Hello everyone, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to reach out to you. I miss you all so much and can’t wait to be on stage talking to you in person.
"As you know I’ve always been an open book and I wasn’t ready to say anything before but I'm ready now."
Watch Dion's emotional address below:Her message continued: "I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time and its been really difficult for me to face my challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through.
"Recently I’ve been diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder called the stiff person syndrome which affects 1 in a million people."
Stiff person syndrome - also known as SPS or stiff-man syndrome - is defined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS) as "a rare neurological disorder with features of an autoimmune disease. SPS is characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms.
"While we’re still learning about this rare condition, we now know this is what’s been causing all the spasms I’ve been having," Dion added.
NINDS adds that although "scientists don’t yet understand what causes SPS", patients can be treated with high doses of diazepam and several anti-convulsants, gabapentin, and tiagabine.
The 'My Heart Will Go On' singer continued: "Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal chords to sing the way I'm used to.
"It hurts me to tell you today that this means I won’t be ready to restart my tour in Europe in February
"I have a great team of doctors working alongside me to help me get better and my precious children who are supporting me and giving me help."
In the caption to her post, Dion revealed that she would be canceling eight of her shows and rescheduling the Spring concerts for the summer
Our best wishes go out to Dion and her loved ones at this time.
