it has been such a long time since i have been on the board that i don't know if anyone will even remember me. the look of the board has changed since i was last here.

we joined the celiac study that is being done at the university of california, irvine a year and a half ago. the results of the celiac tests confirmed what we already knew about our three girls with celiac. i just barely found out the results of our genetic testing. i didn't get the results of my two older kids because they are over 18. i asked them to mail them the results. as far as the rest of us---every single one of us carries the DQ2 gene----both my husband and i and all 7 kids we have had together. my two oldest are from my first marriage. kevin has two from another marriage, also, but neither one of them was tested.

i really didn't expect that every one of us would carry one of the genes and i wonder what activated the disease in the three girls and not in the rest of us. i guess this means yearly blood tests for all of us.

I have a post about my test results, which the only thing I am sure of is that I have the DQ2 gene; I don't know what the antibody results show if anything. I haven't really got a good answer on what the positive DQ2 means, can you help me out?

It means you have the genetic disposition to develop celiac, but it doesn't mean that you necessarily will develop it. Some people do, some don't and as far as I know, the reason isn't really known yet. Often people get sick after a major trauma or stress of some sort, like an operation, or having mono, or pregnancy, but what exactly triggers the celiac I don't know.

Pauliina

ducky is right---the lady over the study says that they know there are other genes involved besides DQ2 and DQ8. they are trying to find out what they are. a good example of this would be the fact that with identical twins, if one has celiac the other has a 70-75% chance of getting celiac---but not a 100% chance. in our case, my identical twins both have celiac.