<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Hello everyone, I have been following the discussions over the past couple months. What a wonderful and helpful group of people! I am a 29 year old graduate student studying Animal Welfare at U.B.C. here in Vancouver, Canada. I have not been officially diagnosed with celiac disease but I carefully avoided gluten for six weeks and then tried it again to see what would happen. I reacted with bloating and back pain and many other obvious symptoms. So, I guess I am a self-diagnosed celiac (of course my doctor stated, "it is unlikely because you don't suffer from diarrhea and are not `wasted' in appearance"). Nevertheless, I have officially been diagnosed with hemochromatosis and since many symptoms are the same as celiac disease I thought I had better relay some information so that you are all aware of this disease as well. Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease also prevalent in 'Northern European Cultures'. My father and Uncle were just diagnosed with it and that is why I requested to be tested for it as well. It is a disease that does not allow your body to get rid of the excess iron it has accumulated from food. Normally your body stores iron in the bone marrow but hemochromatotics (?) don't have any room left in their bones and so the iron begins storing itself in the joints and organs. Any area where it is being stored starts to deteriorate. This leads to cancer, heart disease, and cirrhosis of the liver. It also causes fatigue, joint disease, reddening or bronzing of the skin, hair loss, sexual dysfunction or libido loss, testicle atrophy in men...the list goes on. One of the first symptoms is arthritis in the first and second knuckle of the hand. One symptom difference between Celiac disease and Hemochromatosis is that hemochromatotics don't suffer from anemia. I would encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about hemochromatosis to visit the Canadian Hemochromatosis Society here in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada... http://home.iSTAR.ca/~chcts/ One journal article states that hemochromatosis and celiac disease are both associated with the Human Leukocyte Antigen region (I'm not sure myself what this is, perhaps someone out there who knows what this means could tell us). Anyway, I think it means that these diseases both have a hereditary component and that the interaction of multiple and closely related genes produce the diseases. Here is the journal article and quote: Thomsom, G. (1995) HLA disease associations: models for the study of complex human genetic disorders. Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci 1995; 32(2):183-219] Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720-3140, USA. The genes of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of humans, control a variety of functions involved in immune response and influence susceptibility to over 40 diseases. Theoretical studies in the development of models to determine the modes of inheritance of the HLA-associated diseases have led to a better understanding of the inheritance patterns in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis, hemochromatosis, celiac disease, and others. It is now clear that many of the HLA-associated diseases involve heterogeneity in their HLA components, as well as non-HLA genetic factors. Hope this is of use to someone, Cheers and good health, Anna