Patients with celiac disease are approximately three times more likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) than healthy adults.
The report also indicates that certain types of NHL are particularly common in celiac disease patients, such as T-cell lymphoma and gut lymphoma.
JAMA 2002 March 20;287(11):1413-9
Celiac disease, also known as "gluten intolerance", is a genetic disorder that affects about 1 in 40. Symptoms of celiac disease can range from the classic features, such as diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition, to latent symptoms such as isolated nutrient deficiencies, but no gastrointestinal symptoms.
Because celiac disease has been considered rare in this country, it often goes undiagnosed or is misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or lactose intolerance. My experience is that the true incidence is probably much higher still, perhaps on the order of 1 in 10 people.
It is likely that as many as half of us have subclinical celiac disease and have health problems with wheat that we just don't recognize.
This is most interesting considering the realization that nearly half of the cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma appear to be related to contaminated polio vaccine.
One can only wonder what the connection is.
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