Does Obesity Play a Major Role in Triggering Autoimmune Diseases?

Interesting article. For quite awhile I thought that celiac disease caused obesity. I thought that a person with celiac disease ate more because they weren't absorbing the nutrients from their food and their bodies were trying to get more nutrients. Until now, I never considered that it was the other way around, that it was obesity that was causing their disease.

That is infuriating, we are born genetically predisposed to celiac disease, we become obese trying to get nutrients our villi can't absorb.

Autoimmune diseases run in my family, on both sides. Many of us have always been thin, others were slightly overweight or became overweight when they became older. In our family trees, weight doesn't seem to be a factor in autoimmune diseases, including celiac and Hasimoto's.

That is infuriating, we are born genetically predisposed to celiac disease, we become obese trying to get nutrients our villi can't absorb.

I agree, J. I haven't always been obese, but did gain 100 pounds in the year prior to diagnosis, and was still hungry all the time. Since then, I've lost more than half the weight and am no longer so hungry.

Complete nonsense! Before being diagnosed with celiac, I was unable to keep weight on me no matter how much I consumed. Even while eating over 20,000 calories a day! gluten-free diets have very high GI levels and often celiac patients develop diabites 2 as well as many other auto immune illnesses.

My son was diagnosed with celiac disease last summer at 19 years of age. He is too thin -- has always been too thin -- and struggles to gain weight. While I can accept that obesity might exacerbate an autoimmune condition because of inflammation, it is genetic susceptibility that puts people at risk. If you don't have the genes, you don't get the disorder. What about all the obese people who do not have autoimmune diseases? Autoimmune thyroid disease wreaks havoc on metabolism which can lead to weight gain. Many celiacs also have thyroiditis. Many others also have Type 1 Diabetes.

Obesity does not play a "major" role in triggering an autoimmunity, nor can anything prolong an autoimmunity because once you have developed an autoimmunity you have that for life. Period. It does not just go away if you stop being obese. When I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I had never been considered even overweight ever in my life much less obese. I would personally need a much more realistic explanation for me to ever pay that price to read the actual medical paper.

Complete nonsense! Before being diagnosed with celiac, I was unable to keep weight on me no matter how much I consumed. Even while eating over 20,000 calories a day! gluten-free diets have very high GI levels and often celiac patients develop diabites 2 as well as many other auto immune illnesses.

That may be true in your case, but you are not "most people." The science is pretty clear that large numbers of people diagnosed with celiac disease are either overweight, or obese. Regarding this article, the science says that obesity is a major factor in the development and prolonging of autoimmune diseases. It does not say that thin, or non-obese people can't develop these diseases.

Obesity does not play a "major" role in triggering an autoimmunity, nor can anything prolong an autoimmunity because once you have developed an autoimmunity you have that for life. Period. It does not just go away if you stop being obese. When I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I had never been considered even overweight ever in my life much less obese. I would personally need a much more realistic explanation for me to ever pay that price to read the actual medical paper.

Read my response above. That may be true in your case, but you are not "most people." The science is pretty clear that large numbers of people diagnosed with celiac disease are either overweight, or obese. Regarding this article, the science says that obesity is a major factor in the development and prolonging of autoimmune diseases. It does not say that thin, or non-obese people can't develop these diseases.

That is infuriating, we are born genetically predisposed to celiac disease, we become obese trying to get nutrients our villi can't absorb.

The study says that obesity is a major factor in the development and prolonging of autoimmune diseases. It does not say that thin, or non-obese people can't develop these diseases. Basically, according to this study, if an otherwise healthy, thin person became obese, they would face in increased risk of developing autoimmune conditions, and that those conditions would be harder to control than if that person were thin. I hope that helps.