Brandi Glanville is adamant that a ‘parasite’ is residing in her face, claiming she acquired it while traveling overseas.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star has been enduring a challenging situation for the last two years.
Last year, Glanville disclosed that she had repeatedly sought expert medical advice in an attempt to diagnose the sudden and mysterious changes to her face, which have altered her appearance significantly.
By the close of last year, the former model reported losing nearly six teeth and described feeling like a shadow of her former self. She shared with Page Six on the Virtual Reali-Tea podcast that the experience has severely impacted her mental well-being and social interactions, often leading her to avoid social gatherings and the holiday season.
“It’s depressing. It just hurts my brain and my heart,” she expressed. “The pain is more mental than anything, because I have been hiding and going through a deep, deep depression.”
Initially, it was thought that the celebrity was dealing with ‘stress-induced angioedema’. However, another prevalent theory suggests she has contracted a ‘parasite’ thriving beneath her skin.
The 52-year-old traced the issue back to her time filming the Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in Morocco, North Africa, mentioning she could ‘feel’ something moving under her skin.
“We had food sitting out for hours on end, and some of it was meat,” she told Entertainment Tonight last year.
Six months following her trip, in July 2023, she noticed her face beginning to ‘swell’, ‘sink in’, and her skin’s surface looking like ‘tiny bubbles bursting.’
Unfortunately, medical professionals have yet to provide a conclusive diagnosis, and the Californian celebrity reports spending over $70,000, including $10,000 on lab work, in her quest for answers.
Glanville is convinced of a parasite’s presence, describing sensations of it ‘jumping’ around, ‘having babies’, and even ‘s***ing’ beneath her skin.
“I have chills and a constant oily foul tasting drainage from face into mouth. It’s acidic and is eating away at my teeth,” she revealed in a Twitter post. “Plus all of my lymph nodes in head and neck are swollen. Drs at Kaiser say I’m fine. HELP ME.”
The mother of two has openly discussed various ‘hacks’ she has tried to combat her symptoms, including using a lymphatic drainage machine and applying Nair, a hair removal cream, on her face, along with a mix of aloe vera, cucumber, and black tea.
Regarding her ‘beauty hack’, Glanville commented: “Good news, you guys don’t have to spend a lot of money on pills and lasers anymore, because I decided to put Nair on my face. “Because when I have an exfoliated face it p*sses the [parasite] off, whoever is living in my face.”
Fans voiced their worries about her experiments, noting signs of a chemical burn from the numerous products she applied, and suggested she consider the possibility of Morgellons disease.
This condition is a type of delusional parasitosis, where individuals believe they have a parasite infestation despite medical evaluations finding no evidence.
Dr. Dubrow told TMZ last year that he suspects her facial issues are due to an ‘infectious process or a foreign body reaction to something she’s had injected’ rather than a parasite, but he noted that her condition is still a ‘ticking time bomb.’
“There are these two kinds of microorganisms, one’s called a Microbacterium and the other is called a fungus, and they can be very difficult to treat and could take six to 12 months of antibiotics to treat,” he explained.
“Every minute the microorganism is allowed to stay in her skin and do potential damage she could suffer worse for it,” he continued. “It could be more difficult to treat and she could form more scars and more nodules.”