In my experience, a lot of people who go on to develop Fibromyalgia and CFS often have IBS/ Leaky Gut symptoms in advance of developing CFS/ Fibromyalgia.

Conversely people who had NO problems with their gastro-intestinal tract prior to developing Fibromyalgia/ CFS, often begin to report IBS and/or acid reflux (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or GERD) symptoms later in the illness.

Approximately 25% of patients report having gastro-intestinal symptoms including bloating, gas, cramps constipation or diarrhea BEFORE going on to develop Fibromyalgia CFS.

Approximately 25% of patients report having gastro-intestinal symptoms including bloating, gas, cramps constipation or diarrhea AFTER developing Fibromyalgia CFS.

Usually, after the trigger infection is passed and sufferers are into the realms of CFS/ Fibromyalgia they discover that the IBS/ GERD symptoms gradually start to worsen.

To understand how and why this may be happening we need to go to our diagrams of the Autonomic Nervous System.

http://www.beatfibroandfatigue.com/ansdiagram.html

In diagram one you will see that thoracic 5 down to lumbar 2 are all implicated in stomach and intestinal sympathetic nerve action.

See the free report for a more accurate description of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

http://www.beatfibroandfatigue.com/tinc?key=aqM3eiet&formname=fibroemail

They are known more amicably as the day nerve and the night nerve.

Also cervical occipital, and sacral 2 to 4 are implicated in intestinal parasympathetic nerve action.

In CFS and Fibromyalgia sufferers it is notable that the intestinal symptoms are most noticeable at night and the stomach and GERD symptoms are more noticeable during the day.

The nerve sensitization caused by CFS and Fibromyalgia is triggering adverse reactions all along your gastro-intestinal tract.

Frequently sufferers ask me if it is the IBS that is actually causing their CFS Fibromyalgia symptoms.

Firstly in explaining this is must define Leaky Gut as oppose to IBS, as the actual process whereby there is damage to the walls of the gastro-intestinal tract. This is sometimes a thinning of the mucosal lining and in some cases a visible ulceration.

I have recently come to the conclusion that although there is evidently crossover between the fatigue syndrome conditions and the gastro-intestinal conditions IBS/ Leaky Gut.

However, i do NOT believe Fibromyalgia/ CFS is caused by Leaky Gut or IBS.

But there appears to be a certain predisposal amongst IBS/ Leaky Gut sufferers to go on to contract Fibromyalgia/ CFS.

Just as there is a predisposal amongst people who suffer from stress and anxiety and Fibromyalgia/ CFS, to complete the triangle there is predisposal amongst stress and anxiety sufferers to develop IBS and Leaky Gut.

It is plain to any lay person that the chance of these links being coincidental is highly unlikely.

I have written previously about stress and anxiety and its link with the fatigue syndrome conditions.

http://www.beatfibroandfatigue.com/anxiety.html

Indeed it appears that people with IBS/ Leaky Gut are often misdiagnosed as having Fibromyalgia/ CFS on account of the number of symptoms that are identical.

However normally a General Practitioner should pick this up as part of the routine testing of suspected CFS/ Fibromyalgia patients, and treat any gastro-intestinal issues accordingly, but it seems that some individuals can be too embarrassed about admitting to problems with their intestines and possibly have not fully disclosed the issue.

It goes without saying that this is a chronically detrimental practice.

Similarly a lot of Fibromyalgia/ CFS sufferers who had no previous IBS/ Leaky Gut symptoms appear to develop Leaky Gut or IBS, post infection.

Is the Autonomic Nervous System being compromised by IBS and Leaky Gut to such an extent that they are facilitating a predisposition to develop the fatigue syndrome conditions?

Or vice versa is the fatigue syndrome condition predisposing these sufferers to develop the IBS/ Leaky Gut?

I believe the answers all lie in the specifics of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system irritation.

Effects can be stimulated from either side of the equation, the nerves of a Fibromyalgia/ CFS sufferer can stimulate anomalies in the gastro-intestinal tract, or the tract itself may become damaged by external influences and affect the recovery of a Fibromyalgia/ CFS sufferer.

We have previously discussed how large sections of the immune systems are based around the gastro-intestinal tract by design in order to deal with the enormous amount of work that has to be done to filter toxins and poisons out from what we put into the gastro-intestinal tract on a daily basis.

http://www.beatfibroandfatigue.com/fibrocfsandmld2.html

It goes without saying that a full recovery from Fibromyalgia CFS cannot be contemplated while this system is still malfunctioning.