Boston Children’s Answers: Raising Celiac

Hashimoto disease is an autoimmune disorder that can cause hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid. It’s closely linked to celiac disease. With Hashimoto, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland, with a large number of white blood cells building up and causing inflammation in the thyroid. This damages the thyroid and prevents it from making enough thyroid hormone. The hormone is important because it helps control how your body grows, uses energy, and how many of your organs function. The prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disease in patients with celiac disease is four times greater than that in the general population. This is likely due to sharing some of the same genes. But why do some patients develop a second autoimmune disease many years after being on a strict gluten-free diet? Does having celiac disease trigger the thyroid condition? Does the gluten-free diet help with treating thyroid disease or is medication always needed? We’ll discuss this and more on today’s episode of Raising Celiac. The Raising Celiac Podcast is made possible by the generous support of the Global Autoimmune Institute.