diagnosis

Longtime “Days of Our Lives” actor James Reynolds revealed he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Reynolds, who has portrayed Abe Carver on the long-running daytime soap for 45 years, discussed his experiences with the disease and the decision to incorporate his diagnosis into Abe’s storyline in an interview Tuesday with Entertainment Tonight.

“Well, it kind of goes back to when I thought I was hiding it,” Reynolds said in his sitdown with the outlet’s Nischelle Turner. “The writers also wanted to incorporate it because it was obvious. It was obvious. We play life here [on ‘Days’], and there are many other characters who have gone through real-life issues that then are mirrored on the show.”

The interview includes clips of Abe navigating his Parkinson’s diagnosis. While Reynolds admits the storyline is one born a bit out of necessity, he believes his character is well-suited for it.

“I feel like the the value of Abe [is] as a character who overcomes a lot, has tremendous amount of strength, deals with a lot of things with with humor as well as understanding,” the actor said.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. Symptoms can include problems with balance, uncontrollable shaking of one’s hands and stiffness.

The actor had kept his diagnosis private for “more than a few years,” telling only a few people including his wife and son. So Reynolds previously found himself apologizing as he tried “all these different ways” to unsuccessfully hide his symptoms.

“You could see my hand shaking. You could see different things,” Reynolds said. “You’re playing that game with yourself.”

Reynolds said that his “Days” colleagues have been “super, super just extraordinarily helpful and supportive” since he’s opened up about his diagnosis.

“It couldn’t be a better atmosphere. People are just so wonderful and that makes it a lot easier,” he said. “I do have more energy when I’m at work than in any other place.”

Louis Walsh has revealed that before he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, his doctors were unable to identify the disease in his body

Louis Walsh has revealed that doctors initially ‘couldn’t find anything’ before he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The TV star and music manager was diagnosed with Waldenström macroglobulinemia in 2024.

The former X Factor star. 74, publicly shared his diagnosis during an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, telling Love Island star Ekin-Su and Levi Roots that during lockdown, he was “sick” and nobody knew he had been secretly battling cancer. He later underwent treatment in Dublin.

Waldenström macroglobulinemia is a rare, slow-growing type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that affects white blood cells in the bone marrow and lymphatic tissues. During an appearance on The Big Interview, Louis shared that medics initially couldn’t find the disease in his body.

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“I had a cancer called Waldenström,” he said. Louis went on to add: “And I didn’t know I had it. And at the end of the X Factor series, I was just feeling very weak, and I went to the doctors.

“They couldn’t find anything. And then, one of the doctors called me back, and he said, ‘I think it’s this rare one’ — it would be rare for me — ‘called Waldenström.’ But I’m told, if you’re going to get a cancer, this is the one to get!”

When asked if he underwent any treatment, he disclosed: “I had chemo for a week. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t bad at all – but I couldn’t sleep at night time, so the nurses gave me loads of tea. They were so nice, and I was smiling.”

Louis was later asked whether he was in remission and “100 per cent clear of cancer,” to which he responded: “I think so, oh totally, yeah.” Reflecting on his private health battle, he said in the Big Brother house: “I didn’t even know I had it until I went to the hospital. They checked me, and then they found it.”

He said that his diagnosis affected him mentally, saying: “It’s just up here; even when I go past a hospital, I almost get sick. It’s all gone, I’m fine. It was just the shock of being sick, and that word – nobody wants that word.

“I have it blocked out, a reality check. You see so many people sick, and it’s terrible. In my world, it was all about pop music and all that. I didn’t think of anybody getting sick or anything like that. And that was like, wow, reality check – you’re in the real world.”

During his time on the show, Louis was often seen sleeping. A source said at the time: “Louis is in remission currently but you can see how frail he is and that he has lost a lot of weight. It’s also the reason why he’s sleeping so much; it all took a lot out of him.

“The whole experience was the main driver behind signing up for the show. He’d been really ill and just wanted to enjoy life again and thought, ‘What the hell!'”

The Big Interview: Louis Walsh airs Tuesday, October 27, at 9pm on Virgin Media PLAY and Virgin Media One.

Marshall Faulk is an extraordinarily active 53-year-old. The first-ballot NFL Hall of Fame running back is the head football coach at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. He runs a foundation in his name that assists underprivileged youth. He works out. He plays a lot of golf.

And he has Parkinson’s disease.

Faulk revealed his diagnosis on The Caring Neurologist podcast this week, saying he noticed Parkinson’s symptoms on the golf course.

“The rigidity in my hand, just sometimes after I play a lot or I practice a lot,” he said. “I just thought it was normal nerves when putting and stuff like that. But it started to be times where I was playing, but I wasn’t in a match, and it would still do that. I was like, ‘Wow, is that normal?’”

Faulk said he was diagnosed about 18 months ago. An unfailing optimist in his social media dispatches and a fiery truth-teller when addressing his team, the former Rams Super Bowl champion described himself on the podcast as “one of the lucky ones” because he caught the disease early.

“The doctor was like, ‘You need to go get checked,’” he said. “You need to go have X, Y and Z done. You’re at an age, it’s possible; it’s likely that it’s not, but you need to go get checked.’”

He jumped on the phone to speak with other former NFL players who share the diagnosis.

“They told me about some of the symptoms and things they had that they thought [were] just football-related, that it didn’t relate to Parkinson’s in any manner,” Faulk said. “They wish, in those early stages, if they had maybe just known a little earlier, they would be in better shape.”

Former Green Bay Packers greats Brett Favre and Ahman Green currently live with Parkinson’s. So does former quarterback Bernie Kosar.

St. Louis Rams’ Marshall Faulk, left, straight-arms Lofa Tatupu of the Seattle Seahawks during a 2005 NFL game.

(Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)

Perhaps the most noteworthy sports figure to battle Parkinson’s was boxing great Muhammad Ali, who died in 2016. Faulk met Ali at a dinner and said on the podcast that he is comforted by the memory.

“He leaned over to me and he whispered, ‘You a bad boy,’” Faulk said. “And then he made a couple other comments. I was like, ‘He’s all there.’ So knowing that, I didn’t look at it like life is going to end.”

Faulk was seemingly indestructible as a player. An All-American at San Diego State, he was drafted second overall by the Indianapolis Colts in 1994 and immediately made an impact, rushing for more than 1,000 yards for the first of seven times and being named NFL rookie of the year.

Faulk was traded to the then St. Louis Rams ahead of the 1999 season and led their “Greatest Show on Turf” offense to a Super Bowl XXXIV victory in January 2000. The following season, Faulk was named NFL MVP. He transitioned to the NFL Network broadcast booth after retiring in 2005 having rushed for 12,279 yards and 100 touchdowns while also catching 767 passes for another 36 touchdowns.

He got into coaching in 2025, joining Deion Sanders’ staff at Colorado. When the opportunity arose to become the head coach at Southern, Faulk didn’t hesitate even though he already had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

“I could have stayed at Colorado. I was comfortable. But I’ve never done well in life when comfortable,” he said at his introductory news conference at Southern. “And I’m not gonna lie to you. This is uncomfortable, and I like it.”

The Jaguars, an HBCU school competing in the FCS, are 3-4 in Faulk’s first season after going 2-10 in 2025. Faulk’s messages to his players go beyond football. On Thursday he posted this on Instagram: “Protecting your game goes far beyond avoiding injury.⁠ Protect your body.⁠ Protect your mind.⁠ Protect your circle.⁠ Protect your future.

“The decisions you make away from the field can have just as much impact on your future as what happens between the lines,” he continued. “Choose the people, habits, and environments that move you closer to where you want to go.⁠ Send this to a young athlete who needs this reminder today.⁠”

Helping others is why he decided to open up about his Parkinson’s diagnosis, he told host Dr. Sandeep Thakkar on the podcast.

“I want to help as many people as I can,” he said. “What you want to do with that information is pass it on to the next generation to make sure that they have it better, that they know more. And you’re doing it to leave this world a better place than it was when I got here.”

It is unclear when Billy Joel will perform again.

The 77-year-old singer has to take “a series of tests” before being able to tour again, he told the Hollywood Reporter in a health update following his 2025 brain disorder diagnosis.

“I’m not allowed to drive,” Joel said in the interview published Thursday. “And I can’t do performances because what the neurologist told me, every time you do a show, it’s like you’re getting a concussion.”

Joel canceled concerts in May 2025 after revealing two months before that he had a brain disorder known as normal pressure hydrocephalus, or NPH, which causes physical and mental issues.

“This condition has been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance,” Joel said in a statement on his Instagram in May 2025. “Under his doctor’s instructions, Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during this recovery period.”

NPH is a brain disorder in which excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain’s ventricles, according to the Alzheimer’s Assn. It can cause cognitive issues, difficulty walking and the loss of bladder control. Those suffering with NPH often walk with a wide stance and their bodies bent forward as if they were trying to maintain balance on a boat — a feeling that Joel described while on Bill Maher’s podcast “Club Random” on July 21, 2025.

Other symptoms include mild dementia that involves short-term memory loss, a lack of interest in daily activities and difficulty completing routine tasks.

NPH is one of the few causes of dementia that can be controlled or reversed with surgical treatment, usually involving the placement of a shunt.

It is unclear whether Joel underwent the procedure, although the “Uptown Girl” singer initially postponed his concerts in March 2025 after undergoing unspecified surgery and physical therapy.

The surgery took place just weeks after the crooner lost his balance on Feb. 22, 2025, while performing “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.; however, it is unclear if the tumble and subsequent surgery were at all related to the NPH diagnosis he revealed to the public that May.

For now, Joel reports that he is “OK” and the diagnosis is “not that serious,” per his THR interview. Neurologists have warned the singer, however, about the risks involved in performing, including that the lighting and sound can cause stress in the body.

“And [neurologists] said, ‘Well, you really shouldn’t be doing that right now.’ So they have to test me further to see if I can go back and do performing again, which I would like to be able to do,” he said.

Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario and former assistant editor Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report.

His predecessor, Francis, once wrote that he had started his papacy thinking he might only have a few years in the role, having already suffered health complications throughout his life.

As such, it was clear that he was intent on making waves quickly and implementing what some saw as fairly radical change in the Church at a swift pace.

While Pope Leo’s papacy has undoubtedly started in what appears to be a comparatively measured way, he has still grown quickly into being a powerful, uncompromising and compassionate moral voice on the world stage.

His messaging in opposition to war, in support of the dignity of migrants and on the dangers of AI in particular has stood out in its clarity.

To some extent, he has already done what many Catholics had feared was barely possible, in starting to bring closer together different factions of a Church that had seemed somewhat divided.

Noticeably, both progressive and traditionalist followers often talking of him as a voice that reflects their own.

But even after successful surgery, and with no details yet about what happens now, speculation has already begun as to whether a cancer diagnosis will mean an evident shift in Pope Leo’s pace in implementing changes he sees as necessary.

On the other hand any dramatic moves, such as on doctrine, would certainly feel out of character for a Pope who for nearly a year and a half has shown himself to be measured, thoughtful and discerning, as well as having a focus on stability.