Celiac Disease Awareness Month - May 27, 2014

Each day this month, I will be posting something about Celiac Disease.

Day 27:

A couple days ago I talked about life expectancy for those with celiac disease. Today, I'll share two pieces from the faq's page from the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.

What do people with celiac disease die of to increase the mortality rate?

Increased mortality rates in those with celiac disease are due to an increase especially, but not exclusively, in intestinal lymphomas. Also, other gastrointestinal cancers seem to be more frequent and contribute to an increased in the death rate for those with celiac disease.

Fortunately, many see their increased rate of cancer decrease to that of the general population once on a strict, gluten-free diet.

Does the risk of intestinal lymphoma decrease once diagnosed with celiac disease and on a gluten-free diet or are you still at a greater risk?

It appears that the risk remains high for about 1-2 years after diagnosis, and then drops down to the same level as the general population. 

The doctors I spoke with after my diagnosis were quite certain I would have developed intestinal lymphoma if I hadn't been diagnosed. Seven colon polyps were found during the colonoscopy that was performed at the same time as my endoscopy.

I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of cancer scares the crap out of me. It's also the reason I don't understand why people intentionally "cheat" on the diet.