Dancing The Two-Step

Anyone who follows Carrie Ann Inaba on social media knows how candid the dancer, talk show host and dance competition judge is about her life.

She regularly opens up to her followers about everything from her hectic professional schedule to her passion for rescuing animals. 

And, this year, Inaba has a new platform to connect with fans. In January, she was named a permanent co-host on the CBS daytime show “The Talk.” She calls the role her dream job and hopes it will allow her to raise awareness about health topics, such as the challenges of living and working with chronic illness. 

That’s a subject the 51-year-old knows all too well: She suffers from spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal canal that causes pain and numbness), Sjogren’s syndrome (an autoimmune disease) and fibromyalgia (a musculoskeletal condition) – the latter two of which cause joint pain and fatigue. Both are also considered “invisible illnesses” that are poorly misunderstood and frequently misdiagnosed.

“I have bad flares with my fibromyalgia, which is challenging,” Inaba admits. “Pain can be a life stealer, and, when you don’t look sick, it can be hard for people to understand.”

But, clearly, she doesn’t let her health problems stand in the way of pursuing her professional dreams – she has never missed a day of work due to her illnesses, she says.

After being diagnosed with spinal stenosis in 2007 and Sjogren’s in 2016, she often found herself fighting excruciating pain. Simple tasks like making coffee would leave her exhausted. For someone who had always been incredibly active as a longtime dancer and choreographer, being sedentary due to her pain was difficult. Yet, Inaba says it also gave her time to do some soul-searching and investigate ways to manage her symptoms.

“I found acupuncture and massage therapy both work to reduce inflammation and stop flare-ups,” she says.

Despite her hectic schedule, she incorporates both practices into her weekly routine, alternating them on a daily basis with yoga, meditation and reiki to keep pain at bay.

“If I get busy and skip parts of my daily regimen, such as meditation, the pain returns,” she admits. “I’ve learned to make self-care a priority and to listen to my body.”

Over the years, Inaba has become so in tune with her body that she immediately knew something was wrong when she began experiencing intense fatigue and brain fog six years ago. Her doctor ordered blood work and found her iron and hemoglobin levels were low. He diagnosed Inaba with iron deficiency anemia (IDA), a common type of anemia that occurs when iron levels are insufficient to generate healthy red-blood cells. Women, young children and people with chronic diseases are at an increased risk of anemia.

“I had fibroids in the past that my doctor thinks may have caused my IDA,” she says. “My doctor put me on a treatment plan that was right for me, and I started to feel better almost immediately.”

To raise awareness of IDA, which affects an estimated 5 million Americans (the majority of which are women), Inaba recently partnered with pharmaceutical company Daiichi-Sankyo on its Get Iron Informed campaign. She hopes to encourage people to talk to their doctors, determine if they’re at risk of IDA and have their iron levels tested. Although IDA is common and treatable, she says people often mistakenly chalk up symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog to having a busy life or getting older.

“It’s so important to be your own health advocate,” Inaba says. “I work to share my own stories in the hope that I can empower others to take charge of their health and to not feel so alone.”

To that end, she recently started a web-based series and blog, Carrie Ann Conversations, to share information and personal stories with women around the world.

“It’s a forum where women can ask questions, exchange ideas and share stories,” Inaba says. “I think, by sharing experiences and challenges, we can all learn from each other as well as help each other.”

She hopes the blog will encourage women from different countries and backgrounds to connect, interact and establish a beneficial dialogue – much in the same vein that she and her colleagues do every day on “The Talk.”

“We’re all very similar but come from different backgrounds,” Inaba says of her co-hosts Eve, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood and Sara Gilbert (who recently left the show and was replaced by Marie Osmond). “All of us are self-made women who work hard, and there’s a strength in all of us.”

This fall, Inaba’s schedule will become even busier when she resumes her role as a judge on “Dancing with the Stars” (DWTS) as the ABC show returns for season 28. Although juggling two jobs sounds challenging, Inaba says that, since the shows film at different times, scheduling isn’t a problem.

“I work every day from around 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. filming ‘The Talk,’” she says. “But, with DWTS, there are no rehearsals. As judges, we just show up from approximately 5-7 p.m., record our part and we’re done.”

Inaba – who has been dancing since age 3, when she began taking dance classes in her native Honolulu, Hawaii – is part of the original lineup of DWTS judges, along with Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, from when the show premiered in 2005.

“We’ve become family over the years,” she says. “I’m proud to be part of such a long-running and successful show that encourages people to get out of their comfort zone and try new things.”

When she’s not working, Inaba, who is single, loves nothing more than spending time with her brood of animals at her Los Angeles home. With three rescue dogs and three rescue cats, she says she has reached her current limit for pets. But, as an animal lover and rescuer, she knows these things can change.

“I got a call a few years ago about a feral cat at a local shelter who was scheduled to be euthanized,” she says. “He wasn’t eating and, as a result, was at risk of getting fatty liver disease.”

Inaba remembers heading to the shelter – still in her pajamas – to rescue the cat, which she named Reb. After three months of being extremely shy and fed by hand, Reb came out of his shell. When a friend of Inaba’s asked a short time later if Inaba could temporarily care for a kitten she had found in a car, she agreed. What was meant to be a short-term arrangement soon became permanent, thanks to Reb.

“As soon as the kitten came into my home, Reb went straight to her and began licking her as if to tell me she had found her forever home,” Inaba says with a laugh.

Her love of pets led her to launch the Carrie Ann Inaba Animal Project in 2012, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides funding to grassroots animal-rescue organizations, helps abused and neglected animals, promotes fostering and adoption, and strives to eliminate euthanasia.

“Animals provide truly unconditional love,” says Inaba, who also recently became a vegetarian. “Rescuing animals has made my life so much better.” O