Cara,

Thank you so much for your response and for the links. It is self-diagnosed, but I do believe that I have celiac disease. I have been on a pretty much gluten free diet for about 2 years (towards the beginning I kept trying to eat just a little piece of bread for communion). I have experienced a huge benefit being on a gluten free diet. But not everything got better.

As I have researched my fibromyalgia symptoms, I have come to realize that I got Lyme disease over 40 years ago. I got the classic bull's eye rash (which I had forgotten about because at the time I thought it was ringworm), bad flu-like sickness and a dry cough that lasted for months. Then fatigue, memory problems and joint pain.

I agree with the thought expressed in one of your links: "Primary fibromyalgia and the irritable bowel syndrome: different expressions of a common pathogenetic process." I think that something about Lyme disease triggered my gluten intolerance. The idea I am playing with is that Lyme disease messed up my immune system so that measles was able to establish or reestablish itself in my gut.

Thanks for the links. I am glad to know more about celiac disease.

By the way, no MSG or artificial anything for me.