Another National Month and this one is important to all of us in the diabetes world.. March is National Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month.
Did you know that a lot of the time autoimmune diseases go hand in hand. Being that Type One Diabetes is an autoimmune disorder according to a study, you or someone you know with type one is 27% more likely to have a second autoimmune disorder.
Have you been tested lately?
This data is drawn from nearly 26,000 adults and children being treated for type 1 diabetes at 80 different endocrinology practices in the U.S. between 2010 and 2016. In the study Thyroid related issues ranked number one, followed by celiac in second. Where the study lacks in information is that it was not noted how old patients were when they were diagnosed with the various autoimmune disorders. Certainly making it impossible to gauge if these disorders came in a cluster of if they developed over time after being diagnosed with another autoimmune.
Overall with the information that the study brings forward, it is worth looking into routinely getting checked for a secondary autoimmune disorder, particularly thyroid related ones and celiac.
Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, online September 27, 2016. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-diabetes-immune-disorders-idUSKCN12L2L9
