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Celiac disease is a condition in which the body's immune systems reacts negatively to gluten, a protein found commonly in wheat, barley and rye, and damages the lining in the small intestines. There is currently no cure for this disease but a strict gluten-free diet has proven to be highly effective in easing the intestine. Following a very strict diet can be extremely tricky. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed a new set of guidelines defining the gluten-free label in order to help celiac disease patients with their gluten intake.  These new labels and the production of more gluten free products will help celiac disease patients maintain a healthy small intestine, which, according to a new study, can lower the risk of lymphoma.

For this study, researchers evaluated over 7,600 celiac disease patients. These patients had follow-up intestinal biopsies within six months to five years post diagnosis. The participants were then monitored for about nine years. The researchers noted that at the time of the patients' biopsies, 57 percent of them had healed intestines while 43 percent continued to suffer from intestinal damage.

Based from these statistics, the researchers found that overall, the lymphoma risk for people with celiac disease is 68 out of 100,000 people per year. This rate is roughly three times the rate for the general population, which is 24 out of 100,000 people. In order to evaluate the effects of intestinal damage, the researchers found that the annual lymphoma risk for patients with ongoing intestinal damage was 102 out of 100,000. For patients with healed intestines, the risk fell to 31.5 for every 100,000 people per year.

"We know from prior studies that healing is more likely among patients who report strict adherence to the gluten-free diet, compared with those who admit to less-than-strict dietary habits," Dr. Benjamin Lebwohl, the study's first author said according to HealthDay. Lobwojl is an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. "Our findings linking the follow-up biopsy result to lymphoma risk will lead us to redouble our efforts to better understand intestinal healing and how to achieve it."

Although the researchers are still not sure why some people with celiac disease have healed intestines while others do not, they believe that the role of the intestines is key in understanding lymphoma risk. In the meantime, people with celiac disease should be more adamant on keeping their gluten free diet strict.

The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine.