<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> I most certainly wasn't implying that anyone should take up smoking--just passing on some interesting observations, the meaning of which isn't at all clear. I could even imagine that the correlation found might result from some sort of personality trait that is genetically linked to the susceptibility genes for celiac disease whereby celiac patients (as a group, of course, not all individuals) are less drawn to cigarette smoking than the population as a whole. Thus, there might not be an actual physiological effect, although that is certainly also a possibility. Don Kasarda Albany, California