What Is Your Ethnic Origin?

[Emme999]

After reviewing my "Celiac Info Packet" mommida commented on my last name (shown in my email address): Larsen. She said something about being of Scandinavian descent and the higher incidence of celiac disease in those countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands). So - I'm wondering how many people in the forum are from Scandinavian countries. Then I started wondering where people here originated from in general

So - here's the newest poll: Where did your family originate? I'm really interested in seeing if there is any relevance (in the Forum) to the Scandinavian thing. In the book "Dangerous Grains" the author made a note about the "facial and hair features typical of celiac disease" They are: Blue eyes and fair hair, triangular face shape, and prematurely greying hair. That alone sounds like a description of a Scandinavian person!

Also - if anyone knows anything about this link, please fill me in

Thanks!!

- Michelle

[Emme999]

BTW - I'm a Danish/German mix

Blonde hair, blue-green eyes. Square face shape though! And fortunately not greying yet

[VydorScope]

My father's parents came over form Italy via ellis island, makeing me 2nd generation Italian on that side. My Mom's family pre-dates America with being here. Alot of "Native American" blood in me, plus dutch, etc. A turly American mix.

Olive skin, dark hair, hazel eyes, and "navtive american typical facial sturcture."

Guess I do not fit the prescription your looking for

[frenchiemama]

British Isles Mutt with some German. Maternal Grandmother's family from England, Maternal Grandfather's family from Germany, Paternal Grandmother's family from Ireland and Paternal Grandfather's family from Scotland.

My mom, sister, brother, mom's 4 siblings and me are all redheads.

[anewsprue]

A bit of a mutt here too, Native American, Swedish, French and Jewish by my Grandfather (my sister and mother both have Crohn's disease which some claim is higher in Jewish folk).

Dark hair (cept for the large amt of gray), green eyes and a round face, medium complexion.

[celiac3270]

1/4 Swedish, 1/4 Swiss (Mom's side), and then a mix of Irish, Scottish, English on my Dad's side.

I'm your quintessential celiac...obvious symptoms and Northern European descent.

Brown hair, brown eyes, umm...don't know how to describe face shape and stuff... I'll put myself in an avatar this summer

[ianm]

Northern European mongrel. A mix of the Scandinavian and Germanic ethnic groups.

[Carriefaith]

Father's side: Scottish, Irish, English

Mother's side: Norwegian, Irish, English

The celiac gene is passed from my mothers side of the family since her mother has it. My grandmother's origian is mostly English.

I also have very fair skin, blue eyes (except I have one fairly large brown spot in my right eye), and dark blond hair.

[Emme999]

Does anyone know of any good links concernng the epidemiology of Celiac Disease? I know there is a high rate of this disease in Irish & Scandinavian lines, but can't remember where I read that..

I think it's really interesting that we've seen a lot of both of those already listed in these posts.

And I think it's cool that there are people who *don't* have that lineage who are showing that it *does* show up elsewhere!

Thanks everybody

- Michelle

[mytummyhurts]

I'm a whole bunch of stuff, I couldn't even begin to write it all here because I don't even know all what. But I usually say I'm English and German when people ask. I think those are the major parts. I have auburn hair and hazel eyes.

We had a post up a while back where somebody asked who was Irish because that seemed to be a heritage that had a lot of celiac and, if I remember correctly, almost everybody had some Irish in them somewhere. The people that posted that is.

[skbird]

I'm 3/4 Dutch and the last 1/4 is split between Welsh and Scottish.

When I got my gene test though I have DQ3-9 which is a big Mediterannean gene. When I Google it it comes up with all this info about Iranian women and even Brazillian women but none of my nationality. I thought that was interesting and asked EnteroLab about it - they said probably just a gene from someone of a different heritage floating around in there (must be that great great great great aunt... )

Anyway, I'm fair skinned, strawberry blond hair, blue gray eyes.

Stephanie

[psawyer]

One grandparent each of Scottish, English, Swedish and Norwegian ancestry.

[Guest Viola]

My mother was born in Hungury, my father was English descent. I'm fair skinned, blue eyes.

In Hungury, every few years the school children going into first grade are tested for Celiac, as there is a high rate of the disease there. Finland is also high. If a child is found to have Celiac, the whole family is tested.

It is believed that the earlier they are found, the cheaper it is to treat, as they don't usually get the secondary auto immune problems when caught early. Perhaps North America should learn from them

[Emme999]

It is believed that the earlier they are found, the cheaper it is to treat, as they don't usually get the secondary auto immune problems when caught early. Perhaps North America should learn from them 

Good call Shirley!!

[Eliza13]

I am from Azorean (Portuguese) decent, but my grandfather had blue eyes and was very light indicating possible Irish background. There is a history of some Irish settlement on the island of Sao Miguel which is where my parents are from.

[celiac3270]

Here's the Irish ancestry topic:

Open Original Shared Link

[Emme999]

Thanks celiac3270!!

Wow, so many Scandinavians, Germans, and Irish!

I will have to tell my friend about this - his last name is "O'Conner" and when I told him about some of the symptoms associated with Celiac he said, "Hmm... Maybe I should be tested! I have a lot of those!"

With a name like O'Conner.. Maybe he should!

[bmorrow]

Hi,

I am English, Irish and German. I have blue eyes, blonde hair and fair skin.

[Emme999]

This is from the page: Open Original Shared Link

It's an article written in June 2003. I'll keep looking for something more recent

Celiac disease is a disorder of Caucasians. It affects females slightly more often than males. It appears to be almost non-existent in African and Asian populations. It does occur in Asia among the populations of Indo-European heredity, for example, among the Punjabis of India. The prevalence of celiac disease in European countries is about 1 per 200 individuals, based on general population screening. It had been believed for years that prevalence in the North American population was much less

[celiac3270]

The article's okay except for two things, one of which is that it's supposedly a disorder of Caucasians. Although Caucasians are most commonly diagnosed, Dr. Green has said and I have read in other places (don't have links now) that the prevalence of celiac is thought to be highest in portions of Africa, where it reaches a prevalence of about 1/50.

The other thing is, the article says that we think it's 1/2000 in NA. Really, though, estimates were 1/5000 (which is about the current diagnosis rate) and it's now thought to be 1/133 Americans...don't know about Canada, but I suspect it's a similar figure.

[Carriefaith]

That's very interesting. I wonder why it's more common in Caucasians.

[Emme999]

Okay, this is from Gastroenterology Online - April 2005 Open Original Shared Link

The proportion of people in a population who have celiac disease at a specified time (prevalence rate) depends of course on definition of the disease. Figure 3 illustrates prevalence of preclinical (latent), undiagnosed (largely silent), and diagnosed (mostly active) celiac disease in several European and US populations. Although the prevalence of diagnosed celiac disease varied widely among these populations, the estimates of combined undiagnosed and diagnosed (or silent and active) celiac disease were remarkably similar, between 0.7%

[Emme999]

Oops, wanted to add this (from the same site):

The estimates based on seroepidemiologic studies suggest that, for each diagnosed case of celiac disease, there may be 3

[Guest Eloisa]

I'm spanish/french. I have light brown hair with green eyes. My skin is very fairskinned.

[gf4life]

Years ago I tried to figure out where our ansesters were from and I got the run around from my grandparents. It seems to be a mix of French, Welsh, German, Dutch, Irish, Scottich, and a bit of American Indian, and who knows what else...

Now my kids have the added fun of being half Filipino, which for them means some Japanese, Chinese, Malay and Portuguese...

I have medium brown hair, greenish gold eyes, and a light skintone. My kids all have brown hair, various shades of brown eyes, and tan skin (which they get from their dad!).

I think now a days, with all the various racial mixes it is impossible to say that any disease is specific to a certain race. One of my children spent 7 years without a diagnosis of a genetic disease (called Familial Mediteranean Fever) because most of the doctors he saw wouldn't conscider this since neither my husband or I had the apparent genetic background. But if you conscider the French (and who knows what else) in my background, and the Portuguese in my husband, you get enough mediteranean to conscider the disease. We had one open-minded doctor finally figure out that one. I had narrowed my diagnosis(through my own research) to that disease and one other, which was unlikely since my husband doesn't seem to have any Dutch in him...Anyhow, I'm just saying that it isn't impossible to be Celiac and be one of the appearantly low-risk racial groups.

God bless,

Mariann