<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Okay, I have the summary to my posting "accupuncture, silent cd or ? long". I hope it is coherent. 1 person is having the gene test done on her daughter, and will take her off gluten if she tests positive for the gene Another person said after explaining his family and personal history that "Celiac Disease is amysterious disease and there is no reliable test to prove that person does not have it. Better take the safe side: put your kids on a gluten free diet." After everything I've read I tend to agree with him. 1 person mentioned this website: http://forums.delphi.com/n/main.asp?webtag=celiac&nav=messages and another mentioned this site: DrDavidWilliams.com: Food Allergies Cramping Your Social Life? 1 person felt accupuncture could only help symptoms, not the underlying disease. `Malarkey' was the operative word here. A number of people mention Dr. Fine and his Enterolab. I noticed a quote from him recently.stating that autoimmune diseases are triggered by gluten ingestion. I haven't seen any research regarding this and worry about how much of our info comes from unsupported statements? I'd like to believe him, but the work he does is questioned as not reliable by other sources (which is also an unsupported statement, I know. I just read yesterday in a research abstract from Canada that fecal fat tests and some other ones are not reliable ; but I can't recall which abstract, I was flipping through sites that were related to diabetes antibodies and celiac disease.) Which I was doing because Lynn wrote me `...I heard there was some recent research on celiac and diabetes, that showed the antibodies that are the root cause of type I diabetes dissapear once the person goes on a gf diet. This I heard word of mouth, from the chapter leader of my local cd support group. So I do not have the source to give you...' After she wrote I went surfing and found this; http://pediatrics.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2000/09/09.07/20000907clin016.html you have to join (free) to read anything on medscape, but this is the info Lynn had heard; the research is from Italy, Dr. Allesandro Ventura, and it includes thyroid antibodies as well. Absendt in Texas wrote:...I don't know that this can be counted on for everyone, but my vitiligo began to disappear when I got to be really good at the diet. I feel so much better now, and some pesky health problems that I didn't dream were connected with celiac disease have just disappeared. Go for that diet, for yourself and your daughter, and be thankful that at last we know what we can do for ourselves, and we are progressing rapidly toward making the medical community aware that ours is not a rare disease. Then there will be more good diagnoses, and gluten free food will become more readily available and cheaper. The diet a whole lot better than putting yourself at risk for anemia, bone disease, pernicious anemia, thyroid disease, lymphoma, and cancers, and you actually can learn to make good food easily. At least, that is my opinion! (I'm sure you will hear lots more, just as good as mine.) Thank you Absendt! Several people wrote with encouragement and empathy (aint parenting the hardest thing we'll ever do?) Nancy in nyc brought up the important issues of conforming to the peer group in relation to food and body image "I don't think it helps your daughter to evade issues of conformity--(not that that's what you are doing; though avoiding confronting the food issue may have a component of that)--not now, not ever". Conforming really isn't the issue with me. I don't relish saddling her with the extra preparations, the precautions, the hesitancies whenever she goes with friends to the sub shop or on a sleepover. I don't relish the idea of taking the whole family to gf world... it means a lot more work for me. But I started this testing process because I knew I had to. Deb in Illinois wrote of her family's autoimmune diseases and summarizes : ...Obviously, there is a genetic link. And, what roll does diet play? I am so hungry for information and help that I try to keep an open mind about everything to do with autoimmune disease....Nothing is ever going to make me ingest gluten again, but I sure would like to support my health in any other ways possible. Which I think is a good philosophy. Thank you all, Jody ca usa