Venus Williams Talks Mystery Illness on DR OZ. Today

Today, tennis superstar Venus Williams joins Dr. Oz to discuss her career, her battle with Sjogren's syndrome, and the launch of her new web initiative, "Fitness Journey", designed to help women become healthier.

On why it took so long to diagnose her mystery illness, Williams comments: "I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease called Sjogren's Syndrome. The reason it stayed such a mystery is because the symptoms are so ambiguous that no one can really diagnose it. At one point, I just ended up getting sicker. And that's what happens to a lot of people. The average diagnosis time is about seven years. And that's what happened with me. It took seven years."

On mistaking her disease for laziness, Williams says: "It started in 2004, I would always say, I couldn't get in shape. And I would always say, 'Okay, this time, I'm really going to get in shape'. And no matter what I did, I never could, I never had any wind. So I was out there, just faking it, and then, every now and then, after a big loss, I would say, 'Gosh, something's wrong'. And I'd go get another workup. Then I'd just wait another six months. So that was my life. I would just keep going, getting workups, and there were no answers. As an athlete, you don't make excuses. Either you do it or you don't. So in my head, I just thought, 'Oh, maybe I'm just kind of lazy, you know'. That's what I would think."

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