Hi all! Ive been away for a while navigating this new illness and also studying at university. But im back with so more updates and info, thank you all for your help and support.    Update: I suffered with an infection of my dermatitis herpetiformis a month or so ago. This resulted in a trip to a&e with an extremely swollen face, and a 2 week dose of doxycycline. Of course the infection went down but my dermatitis herpetiformis still remains to pop up every now and again. However, I’m coming up to almost a year being gluten free and I can honestly say the outbreaks are less often and more mild. But I’ve been eating extremely strict on a gluten-free diet (not much eating out and very cross...

Hi there! This is something I’ve often wondered too! I’m still going through the process of getting an official dermatitis herpetiformis diagnosis, however I’ve been battling for 3 years and the dermatologists are pretty certain it’s dermatitis herpetiformis/celiac disease with it’s classic appearance and symptoms (it’s nasty stuff!) About 2 years ago before dermatitis herpetiformis was on the cards, I suffered with a terrible episode of seb dermatitis, it was absolutely everywhere and was probs left undiagnosed for months before I could get in with a dermatologist! I used ketaconazole and it seemed to do the trick. However, knowing what we do now, the dermatitis herpetiformis was...

Although diagnosed with celiac and dermatitis herpetiformis, I was curious about the celiac genetics and had that testing done on my own. Unfortunately, the lab does not explain the results and any doctor I have asked said I would need to see someone specializing in genetics. I was hoping someone out there might help me understand. Here is what came back and although I understand the HLA DQ2 and HLA DQ8, I wasn't sure what the variants mean and why they repeat twice. Someone said it was a double marker meaning both of my parents gave me copies. I also read having this combination makes my celiac potentially much worse. HLA DQ2 - Positive | HLA DQ8 - Negative HLA...