The Emmy and NAACP Image Award winner revealed Monday that she underwent breast reduction surgery on July 13.

“I’ve been holding on to the secret since July 13, which was 67 days ago,” she told the live studio audience of her eponymous daytime chatfest. “And, you know, it’s funny because …I get so many comments about my body. And a lot of y’all can say, ‘Sherri, you’re too top heavy’ and I would get comments like, ‘If you just got a boob job, everything would be balanced.

“So guess what? …  I had a breast reduction over the summer and season two, everything is going to be bigger, except these boobs,” Shepherd quipped.

The 56-year-old funnywoman, who said she “came out of the womb with big boobs,” noted that public pressure didn’t factor into her life-altering health decision.

“Now, to be clear, I did not get this boob job because of all of the comments I got,” she stated. “I got the boob job because I just wanted to see what it felt like to sleep on my stomach.”

Shepherd also revealed that her medical insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of her reduction, telling companies they “need to make women’s health a priority.”

“The fact that they won’t cover a procedure for a woman when it is necessary is a shame,” she said. “A woman should not be in pain and insurance will not cover this.”

Previously coming in at a 42DD bra size, Shepherd referred to her former breasts as her best friends: “It was a little bittersweet because I love my old girls … they grew up with me. They have been with me through thick and thin.”

But Shepherd endured much pain.

“I thought I was carrying around the weight of the world but really it was the weight of my boobs,” the former co-host of “The View”  shared, adding: “All jokes aside, they were so heavy I was slouching all the time. It started becoming really painful, my back was hurting very badly. I was getting the grooves in my shoulders.”

The upside to the breast reduction surgery, she said, is not having to wear a bra, easier to shop for clothes and having perkier nipples.  The downside, however, she said smaller breasts won’t camouflage when she eats foods with a lot of fiber.

“So I just want to say new season, new boobs,” she said as the audience cheered.

Alpha-gal is the new bug-borne scourge, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report released Thursday, which estimated at least 100,000 people — and probably more like 450,000 — have what has come to be known as alpha-gal syndrome.

About 4% of the cases found in the U.S. have occurred on the East End of Long Island.

Alpha-gal, a sugar, is present in all mammals except humans. The same compound is found in tick saliva, and when it enters the body through the skin — as tick spit is wont to do — a person creates antibodies.

The sugar normally isn’t troublesome when ingested, but after, the body of someone who is tick-bit will mount an immune response. After infection, someone consuming beef, pork, venison, rabbit and other meat, as well as products including milk or gelatin, will have a potentially severe allergic reaction — sometimes landing that person in the hospital.

In tandem studies, the CDC analyzed test results from 2017 through 2022 to determine incidence of alpha-gal antibodies, and gauged the awareness of health care providers. They found an increase from 13,000 positive tests in 2017 to 19,000 in 2022.

The adjacent survey of 1,500 health professionals between March and May 2022, including primary care doctors, found that just half had ever heard of the syndrome, and only 5% felt knowledgeable enough to diagnose it. This brought the CDC’s estimate of syndrome numbers to around 450,000.

“The number of potential cases is far beyond what we thought,” the studies’ lead author Dr. Scott Commins, associate chief for allergy and immunology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, told CNN. “If the projection and estimate of nearly 450,000 cases is even approximately correct, this is the number 10 allergy in the country behind sesame, which is number nine and affects roughly half a million people.”

Another twist in this tick plot is that it can take years for the symptoms to be connected with meat consumption, because unlike with most allergies, the reaction is not immediate. It can take hours for a person to experience symptoms, which can include hives, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness and swelling of the lips, throat, tongue or eyelids.

With News Wire Services

Angelica Sanchez, 22, will open her holiday presents just nine months after a life-saving heart transplant ended her daunting three-year wait for a donor. She heads into 2023 with a bright future, a mission of encouraging others to share their organs — and a lasting debt to the person whose organ beats in her chest.

“I know for the holiday season I really won’t be thinking of myself,” said Sanchez. “I’ll have my donor family and my donor in mind, not me.”

The young woman’s long road to recovery was no joyride aboard Santa’s sleigh: She was diagnosed at age 4 with anaplastic large cell lymphoma before undergoing chemotherapy that put her condition in remission for 14 years.

Things took a turn for the worse four years ago, when Sanchez was diagnosed with heart failure — likely the result of her childhood chemo, according to doctors. At age 19, she underwent surgery to implant a left ventricular assist device (LVAC), a battery-operated pump to keep her blood flowing.

But the LVAC left her without much energy, and Sanchez spent much of her time just resting at home as it became clear she needed a transplant.

The teen soon became involved with LiveOnNY, the organ procurement group, and began sharing her story in an effort to encourage potential donors while keeping her cellphone close and waiting anxiously for a call about her own transplant.

“That’s where I got the knowledge of what they really do,” she said of LiveOnNY. “I started to tell my story and help encourage others to become organ donors.”

She landed on the wait list for a new heart on March 27, 2019, before receiving her new organ almost exactly three years later.

Sanchez, who suffered complications from the LVAC procedure, recalled her worries about the transplant surgery before finally deciding to go all in.

“I went back and forth a lot with myself,” she said. “At one point, I didn’t want to get it. I had fears about the hospital and the operation. But I kept telling myself if the opportunity comes, take it. And I did have the support from my family helping me.

“They gave me the strength, the faith, that I would be in good hands with the doctors.”

When she came out of the surgery, Sanchez recalled the amazing feeling of a healthy new heart beating in her chest.

“I just felt so strong, the pounding of the heart,” she said. “… I’m going into this new year with a new heart of mine. It’s like a fresh new beginning, a whole new year with a new heart. I feel amazing, so great.”

When Sanchez gathers to open presents Sunday with her mother, sister, brother and young niece, she’ll be reflecting on the donor who provided the greatest gift of her life.

She had hoped to connect with the donor’s mom after the surgery, and the two finally shared letters and photographs in September. Her Christmas day thoughts, said Sanchez, will be with that mother and her two other daughters.

“I’m really thinking about them, not me,” she said.

It’s the tale of a teenage mother and her 5-week-old son Jaleel, and how his heartbreaking death saved the lives of two other infants: A 2-month-old boy kept alive by his heart and an 11-month-old girl given a reprieve by his implanted liver.

The Long Island woman will share her amazing journey of strength and hope Saturday inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the 25th “Remember and Rejoice” service, honoring donors and recipients in the nation’s largest event of its kind — back live in Manhattan after two years lost to COVID-19.

“I’m excited, honored,” said Erskin, 40, of Valley Stream, L.I. “I feel amazing to be able to share this moment with everyone there. Normally I don’t write it down — and usually it comes from the heart…I didn’t even now how much impact my little son’s story could change someone’s mindset.”

The event, sponsored by the Manhattan Chapter of Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) with the support of LiveOnNY, will bring both joy and tears as the speakers share stories about the gift of life provided by donors while encouraging others to join their ranks.

Erskin will be joined by several other speakers, including Art Shamsky of the World Champion 1969 New York Mets — speaking on behalf of beloved teammate and kidney recipient Ed Kranepool.

“It’s incredible that he’s alive and well today due to some incredible people from New York,” Shamsky said. “I’m kind of standing in for him. It’s basically a day for remembrance and rejoicing. I’ll speak about our friendship, what he’s gone through, and how thankful he is.”

Leonard Achan, president and CEO of LiveOnNY, said the event should also help refocus people on the need for eye and tissue donation and celebrate their connection with those who receive the gift of life.

“The families gathered in St. Patrick’s tell a New York story of resilience and grit and compassion,” he said. “I think it’s emblematic of everything we’ve gone through in the last two years.”

Speaker Eduardo Gonzalez, 27, was heading into his sophomore year of college when his eyesight started to fail. He recalled a doctor’s visit where the giant “E” on an eye chart was unreadable, eventually leading to a double cornea implant that restored his sight.

“I think at the time I didn’t understand how many people came together to make this possible,” he said. “I couldn’t be more thankful now. They really made it effortless.”

Gonzalez, attending for the first time, said he wants to ensure his message resonates about the importance of organ donors on both his life and the world in general.

“Nothing could ever repay the family of donors for giving me the gift of sight,” he explained. “I want to get that message across to everybody.”

Brian Thompson, 60, explained in detail how his insular world expanded exponentially after surgery to receive two new lungs just 14 months ago. Before the transplants, he was “100% disabled.” And last week, he was busy writing up a letter that he plans to read inside the cathedral.

“I’m excited, I’m incredulous,” he said. “A lapsed Irish-Catholic in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This has totally transformed my life, it’s given me a new life.”

Weeks after escaping a Los Angeles car crash, Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed that leaning into a mostly vegan diet has lowered his bad cholesterol significantly – so much so that his physician thought his lab work belonged to someone else.

“My bad cholesterol number is so low that my doctor thought I might be a different person,” the 74-year-old action star wrote in the latest edition of his email newsletter, Insider reported.

Low-density lipoprotein, a type of cholesterol, is sometimes called “bad” cholesterol because it’s linked to higher risk of heart disease.

The avid gym-goer revealed that about 80% of what he ate over the last five years was vegan, with the occasional exception for steak or Austrian wiener schnitzel.

Schwarzenegger said the eating habits made him feel “healthier and younger overall.”

In October 2020, he revealed on social media that he had undergone his third heart surgery, sharing that he had his aortic valve replaced at the Cleveland Clinic medical center in Ohio.

The former Californian Republican Governor also offered a physical fitness pep talk in his latest entry on his website.

“You have to trick your mind and your body,” he wrote. “If you’re like me, you have at least two voices in your head. One is saying you can do it, and another one is telling you it isn’t worth it, just get back in bed. You have to trick the negative voice by loving yourself, breaking through the inertia, and making small wins.”

A professional weightlifter since his teens, the “Pumping Iron” star won the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest seven times before launching his career as a box office superstar with films such as “Conan the Barbarian,” the “Terminator” franchise” and “The Expendables” series.

Borowski is off for China as the head doctor for the U.S. Ski Jumping team, and she’s just as thrilled as any of the athletes under her care as Friday’s Opening Ceremony looms inside the National Stadium.

“I am very excited,” she told the Daily News. “I’m getting antsy, like a kid waiting for Christmas. I jumped at the chance to do this.”

Borowski, 35, was a freshman dance student in the NYU Tisch School of Arts when she decided to instead pursue a career in medicine ? initially to treat the various injuries suffered by her fellow performers.

The daughter of two doctors switched to sports medicine before landing her job with the ski jumpers, first traveling with the men’s team to Italy in January 2020. But the Olympics, she said, are something else entirely.

“”I’m so excited just to see all the different countries represented, so many different people,” she said. “This is people from all around the world, this is a whole different level. The Olympic Village with all the skiers. I’m excited.”

Borowski had the chance to meet with the U.S. team at a pair of “sports science camps” last June and November, with two of the Olympians giving the doctor an early medal for her work with the team.

“For sure,” said two-time Olympian Kevin Bickner, 25, of Wauconda, Ill., “She’s totally dialed in with all the emails and COVID. Honestly, that’s good to have in your back pocket, to know you’re not missing anything.”

Borowski’s presence gives the team members one less thing to worry about, said 23-year-old jumper Casey Larson of Barrington, Ill.

“We’ve know her for over a year now,” he said. “She makes us feel that we’re her first priority.”

Borowski, while well aware of the impact COVID-19 will have on the second Olympiad of the pandemic, is ready for whatever lurks ahead in China.

“From what I hear, obviously these are going to be a very different Games,” said Borowski, a sports health expert in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Langone. “Lots of protocol stuff every day. I’m getting no less than 7 to 10 emails a day, ‘You need to do x,y and z.’ I will be curious to see what the venues look like, how many people are there.”

The 2022 Winter Olympics mark the second time the world’s finest athletes will gather during the pandemic, following the delayed 2020 Summer Games. Despite all the attendant paperwork, pressure and protocols, Borowski remains eager to see her athletes in action.

“Part of our mission and vision was to create an amazing program to insure they’re at the top of their abilities,” she said. “By figuring things out from our data, we can find the best ways to improve their performances.

NYU-Langone began its partnership with the U.S. Olympic team in 2020, with an eye toward the Beijing games even as the ongoing pandemic limited in-person contact. The China trip is the culmination of her efforts for Borowski.

The mother of two said the only downside of her trip of a lifetime was leaving her two kids back home, a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old.

“I’m already having separation anxiety,” she said. “It’s going to be really hard.”

The 1,082,549 positive tests that were recorded Monday by the U.S. set a new high mark for the country as the world grapples with the highly transmissible omicron variant of the virus, John Hopkins University said on its tracking website.

The previous record for cases in a single day was nearly 590,000, which the U.S. recorded last week, according to Bloomberg.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. has reported more than 56 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 827,000 deaths from the virus. Both totals are the most of any nation.

More than 200 million people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States, accounting for about 62.7% of the population, according to JHU.

Over the weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, expressed hope that more people will get vaccinated to avoid another spike after the number of omicron cases drops.

“I hope that as we get into February and March and such that we will be at that level of control,” Fauci told the ABC program “This Week.”

The U.S. reported 1,688 new deaths from COVID-19 on Monday. The country’s single-day record for deaths from the virus was recorded nearly a year ago on Jan. 20, 2021, when the U.S. reported 4,442 fatalities.