Brian Austin Green and Sharna Burgess were on Good Morning America recently talking about their relationship, their upcoming baby and Brian’s health problems. Sharna said she was 33 weeks pregnant, meaning she’s due in about two months since a pregnancy is around 40 weeks. (Correct me if I’m wrong! This site says 33 weeks is eight months pregnant but that there are seven weeks left. I have a kid but that has always confused me.) Brian opened up about his battle with ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammatory bowel disease that can be debilitating. He said he’d lost 20 pounds from it.
Brian Austin Green… The actor, 48, appeared on Good Morning America Thursday morning, where he spoke alongside pregnant girlfriend Sharna Burgess about his recent health issues.
Noting that he has “dealt with ulcerative colitis a few times,” Green called dealing with the illness “a real rough experience.”
“Sharna had never experienced it at all,” he continued, before Burgess, 36, chimed in, adding, “I didn’t realize how debilitating it was until I saw him and watched weight drop off him.”
[Brian] revealed that he “lost like 20 lbs.,” Burgess said that symptoms of the illness made her “scared,” given that she had no experience dealing with something like it the past.
“Not having experienced this type of thing before, and still learning, I was supportive and loving and [like], ‘I’m here for you,’ and internally fearful for how long does this go on for?” she said.
Green then noted that he has revamped his diet in an effort to better live with the disease.
“I try and avoid gluten and dairy as much as possible,” he said during his GMA chat. “It’s really just dietary, like, as long as I can keep things within my system that my body doesn’t think I’m poisoning it with, then it doesn’t fight back.”
My mom has microscopic colitis. Like Brian she doesn’t eat gluten and dairy, and is on a FODMAP diet along with that. She can’t have specific foods like onions, fruits, sweeteners and more. It’s extremely restrictive but has allowed her to restore her health and to live without pain and frankly – diarrhea. It goes unsaid in this interview, but some foods can go right through you and you have to stay close to the bathroom. My mom’s doctor thinks she got it from longterm ibuprofen use before her knee replacement. If you take NSAIDs regularly, please make sure you take them with food.
Getting back to Brian and Sharna, Brian seems to be a controlling person given what we’ve heard about his relationship with Megan Fox, but I hope he’s worked on that aspect of his personality and that he and Sharna are happy together. I got a weird vibe from them here, but it could have been due to the interview format. They do seem to be supportive of each other. Plus they’re going to have a baby soon! I’m glad that Brian has figured out his health problems somewhat as colitis is just awful.
They are so cheesy!
Photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
Just FYI From what I understand we’re actually 9 months pregnant but they say 40 weeks because they count from the last time a pregnant women got her periods which explains why there’s that difference in time count.
Geez. I feel like you just explained nuclear physics. Ah ha!
(thank you)
Ugh, he has my empathy. Anything related to your digestive tract is awful. I’m waiting to have my gallbladder removed because the pain/vomiting the stones are causing has gotten out of hand. People compliment me on my weightloss and while it’s not the worst side effect tbh, I’d rather be bigger and healthy. “You look great!” Yeah? I feel horrendous. Take the damn thing out.
I feel for you, Brian, and the rest of us out there with painful and chronic digestive issues. I had my Gallbladder out at 19, and the attacks I had before having it removed were the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. I hope you’re able to have surgery soon and get some relief.
Now in my 30’s I’ve been diagnosed with IBS-D and Celiac Disease.
Sadly it’s all too common for those of us with one digestive issue to be diagnosed with or develop more issues in the future.
I also really feel for you about the compliments on your weight loss. I lost about 15 pounds before my Celiac/IBS-D diagnosis and was having terrible nausea at the time, which made it difficult for me to eat. People kept telling me how “healthy” I looked, but I hated hearing it because I felt terrible.
People need to:
1) Stop commenting on someone else’s weight loss.
2) Stop thinking that weight loss is always tied to a positive health outcome.
Cannot endorse the weight thing enough! I’ve lost a bunch of unexplained weight recently and you cannot imagine how many people have told me I look great and I have barely left the house.
What I look is sick, not great.
I don’t know if this is the language he used or they are paraphrasing in the quotes, but this is actually not how most UC (or IBD in general) conditions work (not denying he has it obviously, just clarifying). IBD, Crohns, UC (the digestive tract autoimmune disorders) do flair periodically, but you always have them. THey also generally still require powerful medications to manage (I can count on one hand the number of IBD patients I know who manage with diet alone in the long run, even if it works in the short term).
The language used here actually sounds more like IBS that is still serious but not an autoimmune disorder, so dietary changes are the far more common (and at times only) required treatment.
Fwiw, Danielle Walker, popular cookbook author, blogger and influencer, has had UC for 10 years or more. While she has to use heavy duty meds when she has flares, she thrives during non-flare times with very healthy (paleo) gf, df, organic unprocessed eating, and stress management.
Sorry this isn’t correct. I have had UC for 15 years and have been off meds for 12years. My case is relatively mild (although I did have extensive flares/inflammation/bleeding) for years. Yes the underlying condition is always there but as I see/sense a flare arising I am able to control it without prescription meds.
Diet, meditation, exercise but mostly addressing stress and underlying psychology was essential for me but absolutely helps in maintaining my health condition.
Like everything in life, every condition is on a spectrum and allopathic medicine does not always help in managing chronic conditions, especially for those addressing gut/mind.
What sort of medications did you guys take and what worked?
I also have UC and eat mostly gluten and dairy free. I also can’t eat onions and some other FODMAPs. It’s nice to hear a celebrity talk about it. It’s a very isolating chronic disease to have. Most people don’t understand it or equate it to IBS and try to tell you diet tips and tricks to manage it. I know they mean well, but diet is a very, very small piece of it that can only sometimes make you more comfortable.
Oh noooo. He is the absolute worst but I honestly wouldn’t wish UC on the worst person in the world. Hope he manages it okay and I really hope Sharna is doing well too.
Seriously, it’s AWFUL. I was down to 96lbs at one point, just cuz I couldn’t keep anything in me.
My sister has been dealing with long term digestive issues too, I’m sure she and her multiple doctors have talked about ulcerative colitis. She already has Celiac’s (diagnosed in college) so she can’t eat gluten at all and is lactose intolerant (which we’ve known about since she was little). And when I say she has been trying everything under the sun recently, I really mean it is. She had a colonoscopy last year and they found polyps so going forward she’ll have one every 5 years (she’s under 40 which is why insurance was threatening not to cover it), but otherwise her colon looked normal. She recently had an endoscopy and was trying low fodmap but it wasn’t really doing anything for her. She’s seen an integrative doctor for more holistic solutions but so far nothing has changed. It sucks to not know what’s wrong with your digestive tract and just be told you have IBS and there’s nothing else to figure out.
Urgh – my brother had it, he lost so much weight and it took him almost 6 weeks to recover from it (and he caught COVID while recovering as well). He was soo weak and struggled to walk up stairs etc.. They are also checking him out for Crohn’s disease.
Quick suggestion as support for your brother, if he was diagnosed with UC he still has it. It’s really hard for chronically ill people, especially those of us who have invisible illnesses, because so many people act/assume we’re “better” now if our symptoms improve.
Just instinctually, they think you’re better because that’s what happens when they get medical treatment, eat right, etc. Without understanding that we can do every single one of those things and still have IBD, which is really hard for a lot of people to truly come to terms with.
One of my family members has UC as well, and before he was diagnosed, we thought he had cancer. My cousin had to cut down on the hours that he workrd, and ultimately had to change jobs: he has to try to avoid stress. He also received mindfulness and sleep training. As to diet, my cousin’s doctors told him that UC is a mainly “Western [world]” illness that they really don’t see in areas that eat traditionally. My cousin needs to avoid certain foods, especially those high in fat, certain FODMAPs and “factory” foods. He needs to try to eat as fresh foods as possible.
UC is painful, scary, and chronic, and it affects everyone around the person who suffers as well. To those of you who have IBD, here’s wishing you the best of luck! Hugs.
” If you take NSAIDs regularly, please make sure you take them with food.”
YES. Seriously, take them with food or (at the very least) a *lot* of water. I get frequent headaches and I gave myself stomach ulcers by taking NSAIDs on an empty stomach. As soon as I stopped taking them, my ulcers cleared up in 6 months. (Weirdly, my digestion also improved. A good reminder that in the body is connected.)
While these medications can be rough on your stomach, it is inaccurate to say that they can “give you” colitis. Auto-immune diseases are genetic, and while certain diets and medication can worsen the symptoms, they cannot actually cause the disease. I’m really concerned about any doctor that told their patient that Tylenol causes colitis.
Agree! It says on bottles of NSAID products that they can cause death. I was taking Naproxin for fibromyalgia and was taking only the prescribed amount or less because my
stomach would hurt. Eventually my colon was so inflamed (but I didn’t know it) that it choked off my aorta. I essentially had a heart attack in my colon. My BP bottomed out and the paramedics said I’d probably have died if my husband hadn’t been home to call 911.
I’m actually reading this while my 7 yo son is getting his monthly infusion at our local children’s hospital to control his UC. It’s nice to hear a celebrity talk about it – I’m guessing when he says he has dealt with it a few times he means he is in a “flare” where the disease is not controlled and causing symptoms like frequent diarrhea, stomach pain, and fatigue. It can be very debilitating.
Some people can control the disease through diet alone which is great but not everyone can. We used to follow a very restrictive diet for my son but, ultimately, he had to go on immunosuppressant medication to achieve remission. Now he can eat pretty much whatever he wants although we still try to avoid processed food, sugar, and too much gluten. My brother also has UC but no longer has a colon which is, unfortunately, where UC can lead. It is a disease not many people talk about bc it involves “bathroom” issues but way more people suffer from it than most realize.
I’m sorry your kiddo had to start infusion therapy. At my infusion center, they were recently approved for peds and the youngest patient so far was 5 yo. Wishing your child continues to respond to treatment. Hugs, mama.
Thank you! It sounds like you know it all too well also and I’m sorry! It is so rough for the sufferer and even their loved ones. My son was actually diagnosed as an infant and started his remicade infusions at age 2 so this is old hat by now. We are grateful he is in remission. Hope the same for you.
Fellow UC sufferer. Glad BAG can bring awareness about the disease. Most moderate to severe cases of UC need immunosuppressive or immune modulating therapy to get the disease under control then diet and decreased stress can help. Anyone who claims otherwise doesn’t have a severe enough case of UC. UC is so much more than the colon, though. When you have a flare, you can get joint pain/swelling and severe fatigue. It’s a genetic autoimmune disease and people with UC are at higher risk for rheumatoid arthritis and colon cancer.
What’s confusing about 40 weeks being 10 months? 4 weeks in a month x 10. Not calendar months, lunar.