I only recently discovered the research suggesting that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disorder caused by a viral infection which kills orexins in the brain. It is exciting stuff because it is the first time I have heard that narcolepsy might be curable. This is not just a theory either. Many narcoleptics have already had remission of their symptoms. How did they do that? It seems there are two main ways, although there may be more.
The first is by following a gluten free diet. Narcoleptics have some genetic similarity with Celiac people. I don't know much about Celiac disorder, but there are many narcoleptics on various forums claiming that by going gluten free they greatly reduced the incidence of sleep attacks and cataplexy. Some even claim they went away entirely. It appears that gluten is very toxic for narcoleptics and it is my understanding that it triggers certain antibodies to kill orexin cells.
The second way is by killing the virus which caused the antibodies to turn on the orexin cells in the first place. It seems that the virus has similarities with herpes virus, and can be killed by the same medication commonly used to treat herpes. Well that is what Heidi claims to have done herself using Valtrex. It is only available by prescription, but there are many sites on the internet offering what they call generic valtrex, which is the same recipe, just made by other companies. It also costs much less. I am thinking of buying some to try it out, but would rather find out more first. Unfortunately there isn't much more info available at the moment.
Another interesting study found complete remission of symptoms in narcoleptics when they were treated with immunoglobulin. This approach also sees narcolepsy as an autoimmune disorder.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/researchers-say-narcolepsy-trigger-found-20100218-oe8j.html
So it looks like there could be some cures for narcolepsy, although I wouldn't get my hopes up that any pharmaceutical company will come up with such a cure. Funding for medical research is often done by huge corporations who want to make money out of the drugs developed or discovered. A one off treatment wouldn't be worth investing in. Better to come up with a long term treatment which a person has to take for the rest of his/her life. Thank god Heidi is making her research available and accessible to the public. I should add that I would love it if I am wrong, but I doubt it.
