LI's Jamie-Lynn Sigler says she won't 'fall victim' to her MS diagnosis

Actress and parenting podcaster Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has spoken candidly about living with the multiple sclerosis she suffered even during her years on "The Sopranos," says she hopes to demonstrate that those with the disease can live full lives.

"I think that's why I'm sharing that I live with MS," Sigler, 38, a Jericho native, said on the E! show "Daily Pop” Wednesday. She called it a matter "of inclusion and diversity, because I'm somebody that represents a group of people … that live with this disease. But it's not my life. People with MS fall in love, have kids, have marriages, have jobs, have other problems that have nothing to do with their disease."

Sprightly, energetic and showing no visible symptoms during the interview, Sigler said MS is something she deals with daily "but we all have things we deal with every day, right?"

Sigler, who stars in the Lifetime TV-movie "The Neighbor in the Window" Saturday, revealed four years ago that at age 20 she had been diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that is treatable but incurable. Its many symptoms can include loss of balance, muscle spasms and tremors, and excessive fatigue.

Noting that she and her husband — Manhasset-born former baseball player Cutter Dykstra, son of retired Mets player Lenny Dykstra — have two young children, sons Beau, 6, and Jack, 2, Sigler assured, "I live a full life. … I think more than anything, I just try and represent somebody who is just trying to be brave in the face of it and still live their life and choose every day to not fall victim to it.

She added, "I have every excuse to stay in bed every day and say 'poor me,' and I won't because it's not the choice I want to make, it's not the life I want to live."

Approximately 400,000 Americans, including actors Selma Blair, Teri Garr and David Lander, suffer from MS, the precise cause of which is unknown. But with medication and treatment, doctors say, many patients can lead largely normal lives.