The Healthy Celiac Podcast

Celiac Disease and the Link to other Autoimmune Diseases Ep. 91

January 09, 2023 Belinda Whelan Season 1 Episode 91
The Healthy Celiac Podcast
Celiac Disease and the Link to other Autoimmune Diseases Ep. 91
Show Notes Transcript

Learn why I recommend extra testing for further autoimmune diseases and the main ones to look for out of over 80.

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Speaker 1:

Now, as you probably have learned by now, celiac disease is a genetic disorder. So you have to have the genes passed down to you from your parents in order to get celiac disease. And the thing with having one autoimmune disease means that you can actually get other autoimmune diseases because of this reason. Now, what I want to chat with you today is some of the most common autoimmune diseases that are tied very closely to people with celiac disease and why it's important to get screened for these each year when you go for your annual checkups. Now for those of you that are very new to the show, I have probably covered some of this off in previous episodes where I mention what you need to be getting checked at your annual checkups. So if you haven't actually listened to any of those other episodes, um, make sure you go back and listen to the history of the show because there's lots of fantastic information that I share with you on here. So you are a bit more predisposed to getting other autoimmune diseases and when we talk about autoimmune diseases, there's more than 80 autoimmune diseases. So any of these can be tied in and linked to you once you've got celiac disease. And celiac disease can be linked to other people that have got other autoimmune diseases and that's why it's recommended that they also get screened for celiac disease. And it's recommended that we get screened for some autoimmune diseases in our annual checkups as well. So I'm gonna cover that off for you in today's episode. And autoimmune disease is a condition that occurs when your body attacks healthy body tissues and destroys healthy tissue cells. So obviously this is something that we don't want happening in our body, but the more autoimmune diseases that are linked to you, the more problems I guess that you face. Now there are some small studies that have been done that show if you have been diagnosed with celiac disease quite early on, so you haven't been struggling for many, many years with the symptoms of celiac disease, you are less likely to get more autoimmune diseases. So let's just say for example, you were struggling with, um, symptoms for maybe a year or so. So for myself, I was just under a year of dealing with symptoms and then I got a diagnosis. So I was straight away onto eating gluten free and making sure that I was doing all of the things that I needed to do to keep my body healthy and make sure that I was healing and getting on track with my celiac disease diagnosis. But then think of someone like my mom who we are pretty sure she has had celiac disease ever since she was a child and she only got diagnosed in, I can't even remember how old she was, but she was an adult. She was, um, like I, this was

Speaker 2:

Me and I got diagnosed over 10 years ago and she got diagnosed after me. So God, she must have been in her sixties. I can't even remember now. It's terrible. Fifties, late fifties. Sorry mom<laugh>. I shouldn't know this, but yeah, I think my mom's late fifties. That sounds about right. And so she has, I guess, had more damage done to her body over the years because she wasn't eating gluten-free. Obviously, once she got her diagnosis, she went gluten-free and she's very, very good at sticking to a gluten-free diet. And when she had her most recent annual blood test done, it showed zero on her blood panel work that she had any gluten in her system. So I'm very proud of her that she has achieved that because not many people can say that that is how they're doing well with celiac disease. So anyway, my point that I was getting at with my mom is she may be more likely than say me of having another autoimmune disease trigger happening to her because of having that long exposure of having gluten in her diet. So for someone that has treated themselves earlier on and you know, made sure that they're not eating gluten, then they are more likely to stick with just having celiac disease. Having said that, it's not a be all end all. This is not a rule. This is not a far hard and fast rule. This is just some studies have shown that you are less likely to get more autoimmune diseases if you are on track with your Celia disease eating gluten-free. And this is why I have said in previous episodes that it's so important to continue to eat gluten-free, don't have cheat days. Make sure you're strict, make sure you learn everything that you can about celiac disease and cross contact and all of the information that you need so that you're not making mistakes and you're not accidentally consuming gluten because then you've got a much higher chance of not getting other problems. Now, there are two main autoimmune diseases that are very closely linked to people with celiac disease and they are type one diabetes and autoimmune thyroid disease. Now, having said this, there is no link from celiac disease and type two diabetes. It's only type one diabetes because that is an autoimmune type of diabetes, whereas type two diabetes is more diet related from a poor diet. So I'm not talking about type two diabetes, however, you can still get type two diabetes, but that would not be linked to celiac disease. So either way, we don't want to get diabetes. I can guarantee you that is not something that you want as part of your life as well. So what we're talking about is type one diabetes. Okay? So when, um, my niece was diagnosed with type one diabetes, they also tested her for celiac disease. And I'm pretty sure that they will continue to do that on an annual basis just to make sure that she doesn't get celiac

Speaker 3:

Disease as well. And that is why it's also important for us with celiac disease to get tested at our annual checkups for type one diabetes as well. So if you're not getting that done at the moment, make sure when you go and get your annual screening, your checkups, whatever you go and see your doctor for, please make sure that you ask them to do a check for type one diabetes as well. Now, autoimmune thyroid disease happens when the body attacks the thyroid gland, which is in the front of the throat, and you can either have an underactive thyroid or an overactive thyroid, and they both respond with the body, they make the body respond rather in different ways depending on which one you have. So the thyroid is very important for bodily functions and also your metabolism. So an overactive thyroid can cause a erasing heart, it can cause anxiety and it can cause weight loss. Whereas an underactive thyroid can cause problems with weight gain and sluggishness and other conditions that it's, it's easy to just kind of blame celiac disease. They can be very similar to the symptoms of living with celiac disease. So that again, is why it's important to get tested for autoimmune thyroid disease. So because up to about 10% of people with celiac disease also get autoimmune thyroid disease, that's quite a high number. So that's why it's recommended that you also get tested for that. So again, just ask when you go to your annual screening to get your doctor to test you for it. It, it shouldn't take long. It's just another test to add to what you are already being tested for and make sure that you rule that out each year. And then, you know, it could help you give the a, give you the answers to some of the issues that you may be facing if you actually have a thyroid disease and you don't know about it. So definitely worth getting tested for and keeping an eye on this yearly. So this is a great reminder to keep an eye on your health moving forward and know that it's up to you to advocate for yourself. I'm always talking about this that we need to advocate for ourselves, whether it's with our doctors, our gastroenterologists, everyone that we come across, we need to advocate for ourselves. So you need to be the one that asks for these tests. Your doctor generally will not recommend it. They won't even, I guess, bring it up at your checkups because it's not usually on their radar. So be sure to get requested at your next checkup. So I hope that helps you. Just a quick one for you today. I know everyone's busy and I wanted to share this with you because I know it's important and hopefully it'll help someone that's listening get the results and the answers that they need for their help. So thanks for tuning in and I will talk with you again next week. Take care.