What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
MND impacts nerves found in the brain and spine, which tell your muscles what to do.
This leads them to weaken and stiffen over time and typically impacts your walking, talk, eat and respire.
It is a quite uncommon disease that is most common in individuals over 50, but adults of all ages can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
About 5,000 adults in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.
Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genetic material - or biological traits - you get from your parents when you are born, and other lifestyle factors.
In as many as one in 10 individuals with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
Typically there is a family history of the disease in these cases.
Identifying the First Signs of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or encounters them in the same order.
The disease can progress at varying rates too.
Some of the most frequent indicators are:
- muscle weakness and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- problems with how you speak
- complications involving ingesting, eating and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no cure, but there is optimism coming from treatments focused on different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that culminate in the demise of nerve cells.
An innovative medication called tofersen is effective in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been shown to slow - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the symptoms of MND.
It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease.
Although the medication has recently received approval in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK.
There is only one pharmaceutical presently approved for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the condition and increase survival by a few months, but it cannot repair harm.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Some people can live for many years with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.
But for the majority, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is only several years.
Based on the charity MND Association, the disease kills a third of people within a year and more than half within two years of identification.
As the neurons stop working, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.
Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but elite athletes appear overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving 400 ex- Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the disease.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered repeated head injuries have biological differences that could render them more prone to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It noted that while the athletes studied were more likely to acquire MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the disease.
The organization also emphasises that "documented MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misunderstood if this is merely a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Multiple prominent athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years.
This encompasses former rugby players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig died from the condition aged 39.
