Celiacs and other Auto Immune Disorders

Celiac disease is an auto-immune disorder. This means that it involves a whacked out immune system attacking the body's own tissue in response to an imagined threat.

It is very common for people with celiac disease to have other autoimmune disorders as well. For example, I was treated 'round about 1994 for Graves disease - in which the immune system produces antigens that directly stimulate the thyroid gland instead of letting the pituitary gland handle thyroid function. As a result the sufferer tends to become a bit hyper, have trouble sleeping, lose weight, and often display psychiatric anomalies.

I was very thin and had developed an essential tremor (shaking hands). In order to get my thyroid gland to slow down, the doctors at Kaiser hospital gave me some radioactive Iodine (I131). This sort of nuked my thyroid into the next millenium, so now I take a thyroid pill every day. I'm still quite eccentric though.

Another autoimmune disorder often found in celiacs is Type II diabetes. I've been lucky so far on that one.