AUGOLDMINER,

Thanks for your response. I agree that a messed up immune system is part of the picture for fibromyalgia. I am not satisfied to stop there though. Being able to give a name to the particular way my body/immune system is messed up is only helpful if someone has figured out how to heal that named condition. I want more than a good diagnosis. I want to know why my immune system is messed up the way it is and what I can do to get well.

I also agree that fluoride may not be the single cause of fibromyalgia in many cases. For instance, I believe that my fibromyalgia symptoms are due to Lyme disease. But consider this:

Once in the body, fluoride is a destroyer of human enzymes. Being very highly reactive, fluoride hydrolyzes enzymes, thus changing their shapes. Since enzymes are proteins, once they are changed, they become "foreign-looking" to the immune system. The body then treats them as invaders even though they were originally produced by the body. This is an autoimmune situation, right?

Quoting from the definition of fibromyalgia used for this forum, "Fibromyalgia means pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons – the soft fibrous tissues in the body." What do these soft fibrous tissues have in common? The body's connective tissue is composed in large part of collagen. Fluoride prevents new collagen from being properly formed. In fact, fluoride doesn't just cause collagen to be wrongly formed, it causes collagen structures, like ligaments, tendons and, and muscles to be mineralized thus reducing their flexibility and making them crunchy sounding and painful. Fluoride probably causes collagen structures to be weaker as well.

I agree that not all of the pain of fibromyalgia comes from connective tissue. It likely is a central nervous system issue as well. I don't know where fluoride fits into the CNS picture. I just believe that many people who suffer from fibromyalgia would feel better if they avoided fluoride. If people have ingested a lot of fluoride over the years, they will have stored up a lot of fluoride in their bones - so even if they stop ingesting fluoride, it will take a long time before they stop suffering from the effects of fluoride.

You mention fibro possibly masking rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory condition right? My understanding is that fibromyalgia does not involve inflammation.