Is a person with one autoimmune disease more likely to have another

[MaggieJRT's]

Just curious if there is evidence that a person with one autoimmune disease is more likely to have another autoimmune disease. Are there any statistics on this?

It is believed by many that Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease - and I was diagnosed with that last year... then this year I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, another autoimmune disease. I'm curious as to how this might keep going - what's my chances of finding I have a 3rd? It's humorous to go to the doctors office because everything they test me for I end up having, so I'd love to know how it's all related.

thanks.

[bbhonghei]

Absolutely. Get tested for celiac disease. it's linked with both of those.
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/latestresearch/a/celiac.htm

to paraphrase: "We believe that undiagnosed celiac disease can cause other disorders by switching on some as yet unknown immunological mechanism. Untreated celiac patients produce organ-specific autoantibodies."

Private message me if you have any questions. And get tested!

[-Nic-]

To answer your ques., YES. Usu. if you have one autoimmune disease you have another. You don't have to but it's more common. While ea. is separate, they come from an autoimmune system that is attacking your body in different ways. I have Hashimoto's and also fibromyalgia and Raynauds so I have several autoimmune disorders.