Brooke Shields reveals the surprising diet change she made after terrifying seizure

Two months after Brooke Shields suffered from a grand mal seizure, the actress has shared an update with fans, revealing she is now “fine,” and has been tasked with eating more potato chips. 

Brooke has previously revealed that doctors believed her seizure came from a result of drinking too much water and not having enough salt in her diet, and the 58-year-old has now shared the dangers of overdrinking. 

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“I didn’t know it was all about salt and they were like, ‘Eat potato chips,’ and I’m like, ‘Really?’ I didn’t know the serious nature of flooding your system, flooding yourself with the necessary sodium that one needs, and how your kidneys can malfunction. I didn’t know. I just kept thinking I was hydrating,” she told People. 

Brooke told Glamour magazine in September the harrowing details of how she had collapsed ahead of her one-woman show, Previously Owned by Brooke Shields, after everything started “to go black”. 

“I was preparing for the show, and I was drinking so much water, and I didn’t know I was low in sodium… Then my hands drop to my side and I go headfirst into the wall. I start having a grand mal seizure,” she added, revealing that she began “frothing at the mouth”, had turned “totally blue” and was trying to swallow her tongue before she lost consciousness. 

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When she came to, she said she was on oxygen and had been joined by Hollywood A-lister Bradley Cooper, who was called by an assistant after staff were unable to get hold of Brooke’s husband, Chris Henchy. Brooke was taken to the ICU where doctors fitted her with a catheter and IV drip. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, a grand mal seizure, also known as a tonic-clonic seizure, is typically caused by epilepsy, but can also be caused by very low blood sugar, a high fever or a stroke. It is uncommon for this type of seizure to repeat, but those who do face recurrence need to take daily anti-seizure medicines.

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Brooke and Bradley, 48, first met in 2007, when they began work on the 2008 film The Midnight Meat Train. Both stars have kept their friendship private, however, in 2022 they were spotted out at dinner together, with Brooke joined by her husband Chris Henchy and her two daughters, Rowan, 20, and Grier, 17, and Bradley bringing along his daughter Lea. 

The seizure came two years after Brooke broke her right femur after falling from a balance board leaving the actress forced to relearn how to walk due to the severity of the injury. 

“Honestly, every day I feel like I’m having to begin again. Rehab is always slow and it’s one day at a time and you just take what you can control and go, ‘Okay, I’m going to be happy with that as my progress for right now,'” she told People.