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It turns out that the two diseases share some genes. In fact, researchers think that celiac disease & diabetes probably have at least 7 genes in common, & there may be more.
Celiac Disease & Diabetes is a very common combination, especially in people with type 1 diabetes (often known as juvenile diabetes). The estimated rate of celiac disease in people with juvenile diabetes ranges from 10 to 20 percent (meaning that for every 100 people with diabetes, somewhere between 10 & 20 will also have celiac disease). By comparison, the rate of celiac disease in the general U.S. population is about 1 percent.
The reasons why celiac disease & diabetes so often occur together are the focus of lots of research. Celiac disease & diabetes are both autoimmune diseases. This means they both involve tissue damage from autoimmune assaults: in celiac disease, the body's immune system assaults the small intestine, whereas in diabetes, the body assaults the pancreas. Also, both diseases involve food intolerances that require special diets: no gluten for celiac’s, & little or no sugar for diabetics.
It is vital to keep in mind that being tested one time for celiac disease is not , because the disease can create later in life. Therefore, people with diabetes need to be periodically retested for celiac disease, especially if growth failure, failure to gain weight, weight loss, or gastrointestinal signs create. In general, however, research has shown that children who're genetically predisposed to both diabetes & celiac disease will have celiac disease-associated autoantibodies in their blood either before or simultaneously that they have diabetes-associated autoantibodies.
Because the genetic links between the diseases are becoming clearer, plenty of doctors now recommend that somebody who is been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes should also have tests for celiac disease. (Some experts also advise that patients who have type 1 diabetes or celiac disease, or both, should even be tested for autoimmune thyroid disease.)
According to the Kovler Diabetes Middle at the University of Chicago, people are usually diagnosed with diabetes before they are diagnosed with celiac disease - mostly because doctors & the public are more familiar with diabetes. In the event you have diabetes & you're wondering whether you might have celiac disease, see Signs of Celiac Disease. In addition to the signs on that list, there's definite features of undiagnosed celiac disease that are specific to diabetics, including unpredictable or unexplainable swings in blood sugar levels; hypoglycemia a couple hours after a meal, or hypoglycemia that is hard to treat; & reduced insulin needs. All of these are a result of malabsorption related to celiac disease. (In the simplest terms: because of the damage to your small intestine, the food you're eating is not being absorbed into your body.)
Studies have shown that one time diabetics with celiac disease are on a gluten-free diet, the episodes of hypoglycemia are reduced, but it takes several months of being on the diet for the effect to be obvious. But while hypoglycemia will become less of an issue, diabetics with celiac disease who start a gluten-free diet will have other challenges to fine-tune to, as described in The Gluten-Free Diet: Special Issues for Diabetics. But because celiac disease is associated with serious complications, the advantages of staying gluten-free far outweigh the disadvantages.
On the other hand, in the event you have celiac disease & don't stay gluten-free, there can be very serious consequences.
One giant study from Denmark showed that patients with type 1 diabetes & untreated celiac disease had, on average, significantly lower height & weight compared to diabetic patients without celiac disease, & they were significantly more youthful when they developed diabetes. Two years after the celiac patients started on gluten-free diets, they had gained weight, & those who were more youthful than 14 years old had also caught up in height. Everyone also had more iron (hemoglobin & ferritin) in their blood.
