Jamie Oliver's secret agonising health battle that left him unable to stand
Jamie Oliver says he is battling to get back in shape after secretly suffering from a painful health condition for four years.
The 48-year-old celebrity chef - who is married to 49-year-old model Jools with whom he shares five children; Poppy, 21, Daisy, 20, Petal, 14, Buddy, 12, and River, seven - was left in agonising pain after suffering from multiple slipped discs. The medical condition is caused when the soft cushion of tissue between the bones in your spine pushes out - and can result in lower back pain, neck pain, numbness and tingling in the shoulders, back and feet, muscle weakness - and pain elsewhere in the body.
Those suffering from the condition can find it difficult to bend or straighten their backs - and this can impact everything from being able to work, to being able to work out. Jamie has explained that he suffered from the condition for four years and was in such pain that standing for as little as a minute was too painful to endure.
The star has now bounced back from the condition and is now trying to get back in shape by hitting the gym. Slipped discs can require surgery - but often sorts itself, with symptoms treatable with rest and by taking pain killers until the pain disappears over time.
Jamie was forced to plough on with work even though he was in agony (Channel 4)Discussing this recovery with The Sunday Times Magazine, Jamie revealed: “I’m just getting back into normal gyming as I've had four years of three slipped discs. It's about managing it — my job doesn't allow me not to work. If I stop, this whole thing falls apart. I've had weeks where I've been able to stand for only 40 seconds at a time.”
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He is so attune to his body, that he wastes no time in booking an appointment with his health advisor the second he feels tell tale signs of pain. He said: “Now if I get a sniff of it I'm straight to see my doctor and he sticks a bloody great needle in my back.”
Jamie has struggled with his weight and mastering exercise in the past - and fans have seen his body yo-yo in size over the years. Back in 2022 he explained how changing his diet had helped him drop lbs.
He told the Radio Times at the time: “I pushed meat down, pushed veggie up, got more sleep and more movement. I lost 12 kilos (two stone) quite quickly and I didn’t do it through not eating. I ate a lot, more than I used to.”
He added that he discovered a new love for nuts, saying: "They make you half as likely to have a heart attack. Feed them to your kids as well." Around the same time, he also raved about the health benefits of adding seaweed to his diet - explaining that the product helps the body stop absorbing fat, is high in fibre, increases metabolism and is low calorie. He told the Daily Mail: "I thought seaweed was hippy, globetrotting stuff but our ancestors ate seaweed. It’s the most nutritious vegetable in the world."
Jamie also explained on Loose Women in 2022 that he had re-educated himself about food and health after realising he had neglected his own health. He said: "I realised I hadn’t spent much time looking after myself… I went back to school and started studying nutrition, started travelling to parts of the world to where people live the longest lives and started looking at their lifestyles. That was the journey and it’s been amazing."
And explaining a new approach to exercise, realising he could achieve more by changing the time he went to the gym, he confessed to Men’s Health: "I was getting three hours sleep a night, putting on weight and not really getting it. I’d always gone to a trainer but I just hated it. It was really boring. What I finally worked out was that it’s important for you to do it on your terms.
"It’s not about getting it right all the time, in fact, it’s absolutely vital that you don’t get it right all of the time. You’ve just got to get it right most of the time.”
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