Longtime “Dancing with the Stars” judge Carrie Ann Inaba is spreading awareness about a condition she’s been living with for decades.

The dancer and TV personality has recently been transparent about her journey with Sjogren’s disease – an autoimmune condition that can start with seemingly small symptoms but has the potential to become debilitating.

Inaba, 58, was rushed to the hospital last week after her condition triggered a medical emergency mid-flight while traveling to New York City.

‘DWTS’ JUDGE CARRIE ANN INABA RUSHED TO HOSPITAL AFTER MID-FLIGHT MEDICAL EMERGENCY

In an Instagram post featuring a video of Inaba being transported in an ambulance, she described how she “suddenly felt quite ill.”

“And while it seemed like food poisoning, I also suddenly broke out into a cold sweat, got dizzy and my arms went numb,” she wrote.

“Like many people who live with autoimmune disease, I travel with a health tool kit and am prepared for the worst, but this scared me.”

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In an interview with Fox News Digital, Inaba revealed that she’s been silently struggling with the disease for years, since first developing eye problems when she was younger.

“My eyes were really, really dry and I kept having injuries to my corneas,” she said.

After consulting her ophthalmologist, who brushed off her symptoms, Inaba met with a rheumatologist who directed her to a Sjogren’s specialist.

Following extensive bloodwork and a dry-eye test, Inaba was diagnosed with Sjogren’s disease in 2013 – more than 10 years after she first experienced symptoms.

Sjogren’s is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease that can affect different parts of the body. If left untreated, the condition can worsen over time, in some cases causing damage to the lungs, kidneys and other organs, according to medical experts.

An estimated four million people in the U.S. are living with Sjogren’s, 90% of whom are women.

In a survey of more than 3,500 adults living with the disease, 48 different symptoms were reported over the course of a year, per data from Sjout for Sjogren’s.

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Sjogren’s can show up differently for everyone, making it difficult to diagnose.

In Inaba’s case, after the initial dry-eye symptoms, she began suffering from “a lot of pain” in her neck and shoulders. As a dancer, this was difficult to differentiate from the normal aches and pains, she shared. Extreme fatigue was another symptom she experienced.

“I had no energy to move forward with things, which is unlike me,” she said. “I’ve always been a go-getter … I was physically active my whole life. And during this chapter, when I was starting to figure out something was wrong, there were all these symptoms, and I didn’t understand how they were related.”

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Other symptoms can include dry mouth, brain fog, anxiety, swollen glands and lymph nodes, skin rashes, fevers and night sweats. People may also notice numbness, tingling or burning in the hands or feet. Internal organ complications can also occur.

Inaba said she relies on a variety of practices to manage her symptoms, including keeping her eyes and environment moist.

“I always have a lot of drinks. I’m always spraying things in the air to get moisture in the air. I have a humidifier I sleep with,” she told Fox News Digital.

“I also do lots of meditation and reiki and body work to make sure I don’t get too flared up, because pain is always with me. I live with pain 24/7.”

Inaba said she’s learned how to listen to her body to tap into what it needs, especially taking time to rest surrounding big events.

“I know that more than likely, I might be sick and I might have a few down days afterwards, and it’s worth the risk,” she said. “If I don’t have to be in a crowd, I won’t, because I want to take care of my health and prioritize myself.”

For others who are living with Sjogren’s or experiencing symptoms, Inaba’s advice is to keep “careful track” of the warning signs, to recognize when something doesn’t feel right and to advocate for proper care.

This is the message behind the Sjout for Sjogren’s campaign, an awareness movement that Inaba hopes will help spread more knowledge about the disease and reduce stigma.

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“We want people to respect that it is a complicated systemic autoimmune disease that needs care,” she said. “There is no FDA-approved treatment at this time, so it’s about managing symptoms.”

“It’s important to also have a community – and part of this campaign is about building a community.”

The most important thing Inaba wants people to know about Sjogren’s is that “it’s real.”

“It’s an invisible illness,” she said. “I know when I’m out there doing whatever show I’m doing, you don’t think I’m sick, but I pay a price for doing that.”

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“It’s sometimes a lonely and isolating disease – and so I want people to know they can reach out … I want people to feel confident enough to shout about what they’re going through.”

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She added, “Don’t let people tell you it’s not real. And have patience for the friends who are trying to understand, but can’t quite. Because, most likely, you don’t believe it unless you’re actually experiencing it.”

Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.

Forty-six years ago this month, America learned a brutal lesson in the Iranian desert.

In April 1980, Operation Eagle Claw, a Delta Force mission to rescue American hostages in Tehran, ended in disaster. Mechanical failures, a sandstorm, and a catastrophic collision killed eight U.S. service members. The mission failed. The world watched. Our enemies took note.

But what they failed to understand then, and what they are being reminded of now, is this:

America learns. America adapts. And America returns more lethal.

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The rescue of two U.S. airmen deep inside hostile territory was not just an extraordinary success. It was the direct legacy of that failure 46 years ago. What the world just witnessed was the full expression of a Special Operations playbook forged in the wreckage of Eagle Claw.

Failure Forged the Force the World Fears Today

Operation Eagle Claw exposed glaring weaknesses: fractured command, poor inter-service coordination, and no unified special operations capability. America did not retreat. America rebuilt.

That failure became a watershed moment in Special Operations history, helping give birth to USSOCOM and JSOC, the modern U.S. Special Operations enterprise: disciplined, integrated, and built for the world’s hardest missions. Units under Joint Special Operations Command now train for the exact scenario we saw unfold this week: a high-risk recovery deep inside denied territory, executed with precision under extreme pressure.

This latest mission did not begin when the aircraft went down. It began long before, through contingency plans, rehearsals, and layered decision-making built for speed. When the call came, execution was not improvised. It was immediate.

Decision cycles were not measured in hours. They were measured in minutes.

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“No One Left Behind” Is Not a Slogan. It Is a Covenant.

Every service member downrange understands one thing: if you go down, America is coming. No matter the cost. Whatever it takes.

That belief is not motivational language. It is operational truth. It drives risk tolerance. It compresses timelines. And it reinforces trust across the force in ways civilians rarely see or fully understand.

In this case, one airman landed roughly 40 miles from the crash site and survived over 36 hours evading capture, injured, alone, and moving. He did not “get lucky.” His training took over.

That is Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SEREE) training in action: controlling movement, minimizing signature, mastering fear, and maintaining discipline until recovery forces arrive.

Meanwhile, a massive recovery package surged into motion: more than 150 aircraft, including bombers, fighters, refueling tankers, and rescue platforms. This is what global reach looks like. This is what capability looks like. This is what commitment looks like.

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The Brotherhood Civilians Will Never Fully Understand

There is something in these missions that is difficult to explain outside the community.

A switch flips.

Everything else disappears – fear, fatigue, even self-preservation. What remains is singular focus: finish the mission. Find him, secure him, and bring him home. Whatever it takes.

I have had the luxury of a front seat to some of our most elite warrior. The tales of teammates throw themselves on top of hostages in the middle of a firefight, willing to absorbing bullets and shrapnel meant for someone else. That is not normal human behavior. That is the product of training, trust, and an unbreakable brotherhood forged over years.

These are “no-fail” missions. Not because failure is impossible, but because it is intolerable.

We Do Not Leave Our People. And We Do Not Forget Our Fallen.

There is another legacy of Operation Eagle Claw that matters just as much.

From that tragedy came the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, whose mission is simple and sacred: ensure the children of fallen special operations personnel receive a full education.

That is part of America’s battlefield promise.

We bring our people home. And if they do not come home, we take care of their families.

That promise is not a bumper sticker. It is not a talking point. It is a covenant, paid for in blood and honored in action.

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From 1980 to Today: Vindication in the Same Region

There is profound historical symmetry in what just happened.

Forty-six years ago, in that same region, we fell short.

Now, we executed with precision, recovering our people, striking enemy targets, and demonstrating a level of coordination and lethality our adversaries cannot match.

This is not just success.

This is vindication.

It sends a clear message to Iran, China, Russia, and every adversary watching: distance is not protection. Terrain is not protection. Time is not protection.

If you harm Americans, we can find you. And we will act.

American Exceptionalism, Proven, Not Claimed

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In a world that often questions American strength, this mission answered it. Not with rhetoric, but with results.

What you saw in this rescue was not luck. It was not improvisation. It was the culmination of decades of hard lessons from both triumph and tragedy, relentless training, and an unshakable commitment to one principle: leave no man behind.

That principle was tested in 1980, and it failed. But from that failure, we built something extraordinary, a force worthy of those still serving, those we have lost, and the warriors who built this legacy.

And now, the world has seen exactly what that looks like.

Kirk Offel is a Navy nuclear attack submarine veteran and the CEO of Overwatch Mission Critical, a Texas-based Service-Disabled Veteran Owned data center company that trains and hires future leaders for high-skill jobs in the data center industry. He is a Top 10 ranked global voice on data centers.

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