It has long been know that there was a link between celiac and type 1 diabetes, as type 1 diabetes only occurs in 0.5% of the healthy population but in celiac patients the occurrences of diabetes are a much higher - 5-10%. There has been no link made between type II diabetes and celiac disease to this point. Because of the fact that type 1 diabetes is normally diagnosed very early in life the diabetes diagnosis usually comes before the celiac disease diagnosis.

Celiac disease and diabetes share some things in common, such as being more common in those of European descent, and they share the same HLA markers in the immune system, with both being positive for HLA-B8 and HLA-DR3 markers.

A recent study linked the two diseases by their gene variants; it was found that there was an overlap of four celiac disease variants and two type 1 diabetes variants, meaning the two diseases are certainly linked genetically. Interestingly the researchers found that different combinations would produce different outcomes making one individual more likely to get one disease or the other, or both at the same time.

It has been long suspected that there is a common cause between the two diseases and it seems that researchers are closer to the answer to this question than ever before. Now that they know that there is a genetic overlap between the diseases they can begin to examine the environmental factors to see if there is a key link between the two. Finding this link could mean that both disease might be prevented with early testing.

New tests are now being conducted that will test if gluten may be that environmental link, while it is already known that people with celiac disease cannot tolerate wheat, it is being tested to see if gluten is possible an environmental factor in type 1 diabetes. The hypothesis is that gluten may alter the function of the gut immune system, and its connection to the pancreas and its immune system.

Whatever the outcome, the current findings leave lots of room for exciting new insights into both diseases and with that may come a way to predict and possible prevent these two autoimmune diseases.