There are a few theories on the causes of Fibromyalgia. A recent research study shows a connection to leaky guts syndrome and a backs this theory up for many of us. (See the study at the bottom of this page.)

There may be different causes of fibromyalgia but analyze to see if this might be your problem...

Pain is the end result of a complex chain of events that leads to the causes of fibromyalgia. So, to get an overview, you may want to watch these videos first. Then read the information below them.

These videos show how the immune system is involved with Fibromyalgia and is affected by leaky gut syndrome. This also shows how our diet is involved. (Food rotation and plant enzymes are absolute musts for anyone with these issues.)

Here's a good description of what is happening with leaky gut syndrome.

So, to break it down a little more... you know that the food you eat needs to be carried out of the digestive tract and into the bloodstream and to the muscles and other tissue. The problem is that some of the pieces of food that get through the gut wall are too large. They cannot be used on a cellular level as food but instead are recognized as foreign bodies. This causes the immune system to create antibodies and attack these pieces of food as if they are dangerous. These antibodies have a long memory so the next time that particular food enters the body, there is an immediate reaction to ward off this invader (your food). Now you have a sensitivity to the food.

The immune system is compromised because of “circulating immune complexes” - foreign antigens. They usually come from digestive remnants. Once they are in the blood stream, these circulating immune complexes slow healing, and cause pain from inflammatory processes. They also lower the immune system. This problem is called Leaky Gut Syndrome. But what causes leaky gut syndrome?

There are a few reasons that oversized food particles are able to get into the bloodstream. One is because the mucosal barrier is compromised. The mucosal barrier catches everything that isn’t supposed to go through. Various things can make this worse. Ironically, some of these are the things that people with fibromyalgia take to get relief.

Many natural health professionals believe the main cause of leaky gut syndrome is that people do not chew their food thoroughly enough. This creates a number of problems that all lead to fibromyalgia symptoms.

First, when food is not chewed well enough, the enzymes that are in those foods are not broken down or released to digest those foods. Every natural food contains the enzymes necessary to digest that food. The problem is that many people don’t eat natural foods. For a description of how enzymes work, please see our definition of enzymes.

The enzymes work for the first 30-60 minutes that the foods enter into the stomach. Then the acid level in the stomach reaches a point that stops the enzymes. That first hour is called pre-digestion. For many, there are no enzymes in their stomach for that time. Most foods we eat today have been cooked – enzymes are no longer active after they reach 118 degrees. Many foods are processed or man-made and so have no enzymes anyway. Only raw foods have enzymes. Even those are often irradiated which kills the enzymes too. Most fruits and vegetables that you get at the grocery store have been through radiation to give them a longer shelf life. (Have you wondered why they last over a week or even two weeks in your refrigerator now when they used to be good for only a few days?) The enzymes used to start digesting them quickly. Now, without enzymes, there is little bruising and breaking down of the fruit or vegetable.

Your body still produces some enzymes but it is not meant to make all the enzymes necessary to digest all your food. Many are produced in your saliva – if you don’t chew your food well, that has no opportunity to get into the mix to break it down more. Then the stomach produces some enzymes such as pepsin.

So now the food is not as digested as it should be. So when the food empties out of the stomach and into the small intestines, two things are ready to change it further:
1 - the bile that is added from the liver by means of the gall bladder.
2 - a secretion from the pancreas.

The bile helps to neutralize the food from the stomach acid so that the intestines are not damaged by the acid. Then the pancreatic secretions include many enzymes that will help break down the food to the smallest particles so that they can be absorbed by the various points in the intestines as they go down.

There’s another problem that is created when all this is going on. The pancreas is so overworked by trying to make up for all the work that the rest of the body didn’t do that it often stops doing its secondary job – producing insulin into the bloodstream. It is often slightly enlarged because of making extra enzymes to try to get the food to the point it needs to be. The pancreas must make up for the fact that the food wasn’t chewed enough nor was it broken down enough by its own enzymes (since most of American foods don’t include any enzymes – they were removed to extend shelf life or were never in there to begin with) and then many of us don’t produce the enzymes we need in saliva. Plus the saliva, which contains important enzymes, isn’t even mixed in thoroughly due to a lack of chewing.

So to summarize a possible chain reaction could be:
9 - Body pain
8 - Sensitivities/allergies
7 - Immune system lowered
6 - Foreign particles in the blood stream
5 - Leaky gut syndrome
4 - Weak mucosal barrier
3 - Lack of enzymes
2 - Lack of chewing food
1 - Possible body ph imbalance

There can easily be other factors involved that can throw a wrench in the works for any individual. Every body is different. But there is still a way to narrow down the causes of fibromyalgia to find what bothers you the most.

The solution seems to be a rotation diet. Don't eat any food EVERY day or you could grow sensitive to it.

One way to eliminate the most offensive foods all at once is to try the SCD diet as described in the book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet" I read this book and followed the diet in 2003 and it changed my life. It helped me get out of the crippling pain and to manage the pain like I had not been able to do before then.

This is the study that shows the connection between causes of Fibromyalgia and Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Altered Intestinal Permeability in Patients with Primary Fibromyalgia and in Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Rheumatology Advance Access published online on June 7, 2008 Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken140

A. Goebel,¹ S. Buhner,² R. Schedel,¹ H. Lochs² and G. Sprotte¹

¹Pain Management Centre, University Hospital Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg and ²Department for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.

Correspondence to: A. Goebel, The Walton Centre NHS Trust, Lower Lane, Fazakerley, Liverpool L9 7LJ, UK. E-mail: andreasgoebel@rocketmail.com

Abstract

Objectives

The pain intensity of patients with FM has recently been reported to be correlated with the degree of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). SIBO is often associated with an increased intestinal permeability (IP). Increased IP, if shown in FM, may have pathogenetic relevance because it leads to the exposure of immune cells to luminal antigens and consequent immune modulation. It is currently unknown whether IP is altered in FM. We therefore examined the IP in a group of patients with primary FM and in two control groups, healthy volunteers and patients with an unrelated chronic pain syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). We hypothesized that patients with FM, but not volunteers or those patients with CRPS, would have altered IP.

Methods

Both gastroduodenal and small IP were assessed using an established three-sugar test, where urinary disaccharide excretion reflecting intestinal uptake was measured using HPLC.

Results

Forty patients with primary FM, 57 age- and sex-matched volunteers and 17 patients with CRPS were enrolled in this study. In the FM group, 13 patients had raised gastroduodenal permeability and 15 patients had raised small intestinal permeability, but only one volunteer had increased gastroduodenal permeability (P < 0.0001, chi-square test for the three groups). The IP values were significantly increased in the patient groups (P < 0.0003 for all comparisons, one-way analysis of variance).

Conclusions

The IPs in primary FM and, unexpectedly, CRPS are increased. This study should stimulate further research to determine the implication of altered IP in the disease pathophysiology of FM and CRPS.

There may be other causes of fibromyalgia. Some have found that toxins in their homes may be one of their causes of fibromyalgia.Be sure to read about various toxins in your home that you need to look for.

Other possible causes of Fibromyalgia include:

An infection with the EBV - Epstein-Barr virus
Chronic mercury poisoning from amalgam dental fillings
Anemia
Parasites
Hypoglycemia
Hypothyroidism

For more information you may want to check out this book on the causes of fibromyalgia titled, "Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue & Irritable Bowel/ Treating Symptoms, Treating Cause"