I spelled it wrong! It is Alpha Thallasemia Trait ... got my ss's and ll's reversed on that one!!!!! it showed up on some blood tests that were run, looking for something else. What it is, my red blood cells are always smaller than normal, and so consequently I run slightly anemic. But I am not anemic ... just low on iron because the cells are smaller than they should be, so each cell carries less hemoglobin than a larger cell would, therefore less hemoglobin/iron shows up on the blood tests. My system makes more than the normal number of red blood cells, however, to try to compensate. So I have the smaller cells, more of them, and am slightly anemic. There are two other tests that are always out of range on the low end, something like MCV (MVC?) and MCVH (MVCH?) ... not sure on that. would have to go look it up on the test results and I'm being lazy right now. :-P But see, I am blonde, green eyed ... had the white blonde hair into my thirties ... born a towhead. dunno where the Mediterranean/Asian ancestor is. However if the DNA tests results posted here for MtDNA are correct then that would explain it. What I have is not a disease, it's just a blood trait just as sickle cell is. Although there are three other kinds of Alpha-Thallasemia, in varying degrees of severity. THe problem would be if my children had the trait and were to marry someone who is also carrying the trait, and since it is recessive .. then their children would have all kinds of problems. If you do a google on it you can read about it. But spell it the way I have it now! hahaha What I am wondering about now, is would such a trait as a Mediterranean/Oriental/Asian trait show up in the Irish, because of the ancestry from so long ago? I do know that maternal DNA (MtDNA) changes/mutates only once in about a million or so years, let's say, as it is passed down the maternal line. So wouldn't it have to be something I inherited from my maternal line? (That would only be Irish, French, and a little bit of German from Saxony. On my paternal side it is Ostfrisian-German (with a little bit of Dutch in there), Swiss, and English.) Or could my father have passed this mediterranean trait to me. I guess I'm looking for the Asian in the Irish woodpile. Phyllis >Dear Phyllis, > >If it is not too personal, what exactly is the Alpha Thessalonia Trait. I >am also very interested in this subject. > >Regards, >Colleen >