Over the years I've read that the Irish, people from the Midlands, and Scandinavians and Central East Europeans are all more susceptible to coeliac. So what's your heritage?
I'm Irish/ English/ Scottish/ Czech and born in the Midlands - not sure which genes to blame!
A good question Sassyl - we have Irish, Scottish and English in us. We've also read that a lot of Northern hemisphere people seem to have higher incidents of Coeliac Disease. Could it be our genes? Or is it that other countries aren't testing for Coeliac as much as their Northern Counterparts? It will be interesting to see what everyone responds with....
I'm English/Hungarian/Scottish roots born in the Midlands!
I blame my dad's genes, who was born in the Midlands to an English Midlander mother and a Hungarian father. He shares my allergy to some fruits, and some of his family have asthma the same as me. My mother's family are as fit as fiddles, however my maternal grandmother is adopted so who knows what went on there 3 generations and more back!
I'm the only known coeliac in my family, although I am no longer in touch with my father's family. My mum and brother were tested and given the all clear when I was diagnosed and my dad *says* he's fine...
Sassyl, you and I have such similar heritage. Really, really interesting question.
It's mostly genetics. There's a higher incidence of HLA-DQ2 etc. in northern Europe, particularly in people of Irish descent where the incidence of coeliac is about 1 in 75.
I'm boringly English but there's Irish blood in me if you go back a couple of hundred years.
Like you I am English both parents coming from the Midlands. I also have Irish ancestors who turned up in UK around 1840's.
Ooops they turned up in England not UK!!!
It looks like I got it from all sides. My father and his ancestors were from the Midlands and Ireland. My mother's ancestors were from Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Both sides of my family have Celiacs and many people with autoimmune diseases.
I'm currently working on my Midlands' ancestors and have traced them to the 1640s. My mother's European ancestors go back into the 1400s. A number of us are genealogists. I find it interesting to see the genetic and ancestoral links.
I'm of Belgian/American (!!) stock, but born and brought up in my early years in Sweden (!!) ...currently living in Scotland.... so genes-wise I don't fit in, do I, yet I'm coeliac!
I was told by my Gastroenterologist that it was closely linked to Celtic and Irish heritage.
I have Irish, Scottish, English and some North African/MIddle Eastern (not sure which yet) and I'm in the Midlands too. But the Midlands is probably just co-incidence?
My father has Celiac, he is half Portugese (azores, so could be part Danish if I could go back that far). His other half is French Canadian, that we know is all French and Belgium back at least 200 years.
I think if you look back through history the Vikings settled in Ireland. Then lots of Irish (like my grandmother) came over to the Midlands in the 1910/20's. Vikings of course being Scandinavian.
Not sure where the French or Belgians fit into that though!
Scottish through and through, no famiail history that i am aware of though on my (step)father's side, my aunt and both cousins are both coealiac, my (step)father had issues with wheat but this was before any of the others were every diagnosed so he propably had it as well
I am the only coeliac in my family. My father's side of my family are Irish and Scottish and on my mum's side they were Welsh. I was born in Bristol, so the Celtic thing is present but not the midlands connection. But there is a lot of Thyroid problems in my family.
Hi, i also was born in Bristol. my mum was from wilkshire and dad from yorkshire, (sheffield)my gluten allergy only in last 4 months. i have
hashimoto`s, rhuematoid arthritis, and skin allergys. gran had asthma,
and RA. mum also autoimmune. don`t no how far back this go`s.
lack of iodine in soil to blame. it starts of when genes have changed
and follows down the female line. allergy`s are IgG autoimmune as is the RA and hypothyroidism (hashimoto`s)auto meaning self attack your own body and set out to distroy it. only cure is gene therapy.!!!!!!!
Found this interesting study on coeliac disease among the Asian community.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/158...
It sounds as though Asians may possibly have problems getting diagnosed as they tend not to present with IBS type symptoms.
I guess coeliac disease is probably underdiagnosed in a lot of countries.
sassyl - a lot of Vikings settled in Northern Europe, they really got around!
I am sorry but I think this is a nonsense, I am Spanish and I am coeliac. I think it is more to do with family genes than where you come from!!
There are people with coeliac disease everywhere in the world. It is a matter of whether they have been diagnosed or not.
Pretty much all English - South West and London mostly.
It took nearly 5 years to get a diagnosis for cd, my gastro said that as I am Irish I was more likely to have cd.
Scottish/English/Irish - but the only one in my family with it
My son is the only one in our family diagnosed with it, and my husband and I are from South Africa (living in UK now) with roots in Seychelles, Kenya, Wales and Netherlands!
Ooooooh - might be best not to get me started on this one 
2 coeliac children - and genetic tests show they have inherited coeliac genes from BOTH parents. My husband's ancestry is 100% Irish, mine is 100% English.
My husband's sister and uncle are both diagnosed coeliac. There are other related conditions in that part of his family also (B12 deficiency, MS). I suspect my husband would be better on a gluten free diet - as he has all sorts of gluten-related symptoms, and one heck of a family history. My daughter's NHS paediatrician has independently suggested this - but he refuses.....
On my side I suspect my grandmother (from Yorkshire) was coeliac as she had various digestive problems all her life - in particular she couldn't eat brown bread. She avoided doctors like the plague (possibly bad experiences in earlier life??) This grandmother died in 1980, but I have interviewed my mum(!) who thinks that her mother's sister was probably coeliac also (this person died of pernicious anaemia in her early 40's). I have also traced the family tree a bit, and the grandfather of these 2 ladies (also from Yorkshire) died at the age of 28, cause of death was given as "intestinal TB" - often confused with/related to coeliac (and medical diagnosis was not as precise in those days as it is now.....)
Another 3 x great grandmother (I think) died from "decline" at the age of 23 - death was not even certified by a doctor, she had a 2 yr old child (obviously this was my ancestor). I'm reliably informed this could have been cancer, or any number of other things - as they just weren't able to diagnose in the same way as nowadays - basically she just got more & more ill and eventually died. I'm starting to wonder if it might have been adrenal insufficiency (what my daughter has just been diagnosed with) - as this would have a similar effect if left untreated, and was invariably fatal up to about 50 or 60 years ago. But this is pure speculation on my part........
Hi I'm Scandinavian (Swedish/Norwegian) and dairy and gluten intolerant. I have also heard that countries with potatoe based diets have a larger incident of celiac disease. In Sweden where I was brought up, they don't make any difference between gluten allergy and gluten intolerance, we can all join the celiac society.
I have Scottish/Irish/English and possibly some Scandinavian too if I go quite far back, born in Liverpool so bound to have a bit of a mix. No one else in my family has c.d. though, just me.
@beckf - fascinating to see how family trees evolve & hear about yours. Have tried ours and have lots of people dying early and with Thyroid disease (often associated with coeliac disease). With hindsight it's fascinating to wonder whether many had coeliac disease or where the genes came from. I guess we'll never know but it's interesting research.
south west england through and through, my families can be traced within miles of each other. 1 set are Cornish and one set are Plymouthian
I am half Italian half Scots. In Italy everyone is tested for cd and it is taken very seriously. Italians coeliacs get 99 euros a month to spend on GF food and 2 days off work per month to shop and prepare their food. Our extended family has 6 confirmed coeliacs about 20 people with thyroid problems and about 20 with osteoporosis.
I am 2nd generation Irish ,I read somewhere or maybe heard on the radio that one of the reasons for the high incidence of cd among Irish people could be because of the famine ?
A lot of Irish came to the Midlands because of the Automobile industry and the high employment .
Have done a lot of work in this area. I find it fascinating...
Reading UN stuff..(as you do)...its noted that certain countries are above expected percentage of the incidence of CD.
In Ireland...the staple food...was potato based...and what wheat they did grow...was exported. Hence when the famines of the 1840's etc....the people emigrated...taking with them the pre-disposition to Coeliac...
In the old Yugoslavia...again..the staple food was rice...and again higher % of people with CD.
The one that for me wraps this up....is Sub-saharan Africa (the west coastal area of Africa...).the area where the people by tradition were nomadic...and the staple was millet...(short growing time, drought resistant), made into a porridge type food. Times change..and the traditional life is disappearing in favour of a stable living in houses lifestyle, better medical care etc.
With this...a sharp increase in population..and no longer able to feed themselves...and became dependent on imported wheat....with a 1 in 6 incidence of CD. By far the highest world wide.....
Similarly...the eating of wheat in Far East..is showing similar problems...its not a wheat area at all....
The other anomily...is around Poole in Dorset. The only logical explanation for this....a vigilent Medical team at the Poole Hospital....
My own family has Irish blood...and although I cannot ask her...I have reason to believe that my beloved Nannan had CD. She was a fantastic cook...(her Yorkshire puddings will never be bettered)..but she never ate her own flour based items. Was this CD??
I also have reason to suspect my sister is one of us too. We were brought up to share....and this is one I would have preferred to keep to myself. Between us we have CD, thyroid problems, diabetes, (both of us, and scattered along the family.). Plus assorted other things present in both of us....
What I do know..is that although it does provide challenges at times...we are both creative people...and can overcome most things, one way or another.
Isnt it fun??
With best wishes
I have Celtic heritage on my mums side and am less sure about my dad but think all of his family had been Londoners for a very long time. There is quite a lot of auto immune problems in my mums relatives which myself, my sister and now my nieces are sharing!
From "Living Gluten Free for Dummies"
"Coeliac disease is a non-discriminatory condition, found in all races and nationalities. Occurrence is commonly thought to be more prevalent in poeple with Northern European ancestry, but that distinction is diminishing as populations are becoming more mingled. Some people think that civilisations that developed between the Tigris and Euphrates in the Middle East, where grain was first cultivated, have had longer to cope successfully with gluten-containing grains; that's why the prevailance of gluten sensitivity among these people is lower.
Other groups, like the Germans, Scandinavians, and Celts of England , Scotland and Ireland began cultivating wheat only in limited amounts in the post-Roman era. They were mostly hunter-gatherers until the Middle Ages, and so those populations have had less time to adjust to gluten free grains."
My interpretation of this is that older civilisations didn't actually 'adjust' to gluten, but in a world of 'survival of the fittest' where bread was a staple food those with gluten intolerance were generally not as fit and well as those who could tolerate gluten and so were less likely to have children to carry the gene forward. Who would want to pair up with someone who always had a dodgy tummy, bloating and violent wind?
Tribes who didn't adopt grain as a staple (hunter-gatherers) carried on following the herds and gathering wild fruit and veg and spread into Northern Europe.
Grain dependent civilisations could develop much faster than hunter-gatherers because grain can be stored for use later, and when used it produces foods that are highly nourishing, full of energy, and convenient to carry and eat anywhere, on the go. No wonder the Romans were able to raid and plunder their way across the known world, with their packed lunches ready to eat between rounding up slaves.
In our Northern cultures where grain wasn't a staple everyone (including would-be coeliacs) would be fit and healthy and continue to raise children and carry the coeliac gene forward. Later, when the grain dependent culture caught up with them, coeliac disease would hit them.
By this time, the range of food available was much bigger and those who developed Coeliac disease were able to live almost 'normal' lives by selective diets, and would reproduce and carry the Coeliac gene into the present day.
Coeliac disease hits us much harder now than it did in ancient times anyway because, through horticultural 'development' to produce better, fatter grains from the different members of the grass family, the gluten content has increased vastly.
The potential to be a Coeliac is as old as Mankind. We Coeliacs were around way before bread!
That's a great theory Phil!
I'm half Irish
Well I'm coeliac. All my father's ancestors came from Dorset and my mother's from Somerset.
I was born in east london, my mums from there too and my dads from manchester and I have german roots on my dads side and jewish on my mums. But as I have Addisons disease I have a permanent tan so I look like I am from the mediterranean apparently lol
Why do you have to?
Hello,
Just wondering if anybody suffers from restless leg syndrome, plus if you do how do you cope with it?
What do you all eat.....