<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Donald Kasarda has expressed concern that recent reports on this list about "myriad personal symptoms," which some of us have linked to our ingestion of gluten, might cause people to think that these responses are a necessary, universal part of the celiac's response to gluten. He has called for postings from those who experience no such responses. Null reports may be reassuring to some newly diagnosed or highly anxious celiacs, but I hope Kasorda is not implying that a response must be universal to be an intrinsic part of the disease. We already have abundant evidence on the great individual variability of gut and skin symptom responses to gluten. Why should there not be variability in other ways in which our immune systems respond to this stimulus? If symptoms such as mental confusion, irritability, depression, joint pain, and so on turn out not to be caused by celiac disease itself but to be the result of associated sensitivities or auto-immune problems, they are still worth knowing about. As a scientist, I share Kasarda's skepticism about anecdotal reports linking phenomena whose statistical coincidence has not been established by good epidemiological research and for which a linking mechanism is not known. However, until that research becomes available, I think there is value to celiacs, their physicians, and researchers in thinking broadly about adverse effects of gluten on sensitive individuals. Too little is known to restrict our definition of the problem. Nancy E. Jackson <[log in to unmask]> until April 27, 1995 and <[log in to unmask]> thereafter