Narcolepsy Support Group

well iall i know is that i have the narcolepsy gene and it just needs to be triggered
they said by a virus stress etc, am sure other people know more about this than me. x

There are genes associated, but narcolepsy is a complex trait. This means that their are many factors (genetic and environmental) that play a role.

If you have the'narcolepsy' gene, you have a predisposition to the disorder. However, there are people that have the gene, and don't have the disorder; and there are people that don't have the gene, and have the disorder.

Complex traits end up getting pretty wild, and since there are so many factors are involved, geneticist don't know entirely how the various factors contribute to the disease.

Also, what Vonny mentioned about viruses is true. Autoimmune disorders (which narcolepsy is) are often triggered by a viral infection.

am not sure what triggered mine
i had two bad viruses, and was extemely stressed aswell so take ya pick. vonny x

My mother thinks that my diagnois of "failure to thrive" was narcolepsy when I was a baby. She said I preferred to sleep than to wake up and eat.

Yes, in identical twin studies there is only about a 25% chance that both twins will have narcolepsy. Most people diagnosed with N with C share a particular genetic variation, DQB1*0602, however 20-25 on the general population also demonstrate the variation and never develop narcolepsy. ( I have my Narcolepsy Networker Newsletter-winter 2009, open here in front of me- and i am paraphrasing) I am waiting results back to see if I have the marker. With improved diagnosis , they are now able to to test people much closer to the time that their symptoms began... They have observed (at Stanford U) that a significant number of these newly diagnosed people had been exposed to the strep within the year before symptoms started. Now I would think just about everyone gets exposed to strep sometime in their lives...but they theorize that in people with this particular variation, the immune system may create ( mis-create) antibodies for strep that that mistake the particular cells that regulate sleep for strep. It was briefly mentioned that there is some evidence that in people with a different gene variation, exposure to strep may trigger OCD. ( this from a workshop at the conference lead by a Stanford researcher)