Martha Stewart, 83, has nothing to hide. She’s always been unabashedly candid about her life and career, including her divorce and her 2005 stint in prison for insider trading.
And now, the lifestyle guru is opening up about being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease vitiligo for the very first time.
After spending a month filming Yes, Chef! with José Andrés in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Stewart sat down with Seemal R. Desai, MD, founder and medical director of Innovative Dermatology and Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, to discuss her skin health and overall wellness regimen at the American Academy of Dermatology’s (AAD) annual meeting in Orlando, FL.
Stewart started noticing white patches on her skin around her divorce in 1990, and she attributes it to stress from the separation. Vitiligo occurs when the body misfires against its own melanocytes—the cells responsible for skin pigmentation— causing patches of whitened skin.
“It’s disfiguring,” said Stewart. Autoimmune diseases like vitiligo tend to run in families, and she recalls her uncle also having white spots up his arms. Psychological stress may contribute to the development of vitiligo.
At the time of Stewart’s diagnosis, there weren’t any U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs for vitiligo. She received herbs to dye her skin from a doctor in Brazil but opted not to try them. Now, Opzelura is the first and only FDA-approved topical treatment for vitiligo in adults and children aged 12 and up.
“I think I’m cured, but not of other things,” she quipped. Sometimes, these patches do go away on their own.
Her vitiligo diagnosis wasn’t the only big reveal that the media mogul dropped on stage at the AAD meeting. “I am working with [New York dermatologist] Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali on skin care that I hope will be revolutionary,” she said.
But that is as far as she would go on the subject. “It’s still secret, but we will probably launch the first product in the autumn,” she said.
The chat seamlessly segued into her dewy and ageless complexion. “I look phenomenal because I take care,” she said. Stewart gets regular facials at Mario Badescu in New York.
“I have been a fan and advocate for them for a very long time,” she says. “I just sent another 80-year-old friend there last week, and she came out looking 20 years younger.”
She also never goes to bed with a dirty face.
While Stewart has been vocal about not undergoing any major plastic surgery, she does cop to tweakments with Botox Cosmetic in her jawline and neck. (She once even put Scotch Tape on her face to combat wrinkles under the advice of a well-known dermatologist.)
That’s not all Stewart does to continue looking and feeling her best in her eighth decade. “My green juice every day saves me,” she said. The juice is made with veggies and fruit grown in her Bedford, NY, garden and includes spinach, parsley, ginger, cucumbers and celery. “That’s the base,” she said. “A pound of spinach every day goes into the juicer, and I might add a piece of papaya, a piece of mango, or a kiwi.”
Stewart doesn’t keep traditional hours. She wakes at 3 a.m., reads the newspapers on her iPad in bed, and heads out to Pilates by 6:30 a.m., but not before she makes a cup of cappuccino for her trainer.
“I am busy enjoying writing…and developing more and better products for the home and making sure that the homemaker is well taught,” she said. “Being a teacher and spreading information through Instagram and blogs is very important to me, and the response is always nice.”
When does the queen of home décor call it a day? “Whenever I am finished,” she said. This doesn’t usually add up to the recommended eight hours of sleep that’s needed for optimal health and well-being. “I don’t enjoy sleeping, and I never have,” she said.
Whatever she’s doing seems to be working. Stewart doesn’t take any prescription medications. “If my doctor says I am low in vitamin D, I will take some, but I don’t take the things that my friends are all taking.”
Sign us up!
