What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
MND impacts nerve cells found in the brain and spinal cord, which tell your muscle tissue how to function.
This causes them to lose strength and stiffen over time and typically impacts your walking, speak, eat and respire.
It is a quite uncommon condition that is most common in people over 50, but grown-ups of all ages can be affected.
A person's chance in their life of developing MND is one in 300.
Approximately 5,000 adults in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.
Researchers are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genes - or biological traits - you inherit from your mother and father when you are delivered, and other environmental influences.
For up to one in 10 people with MND, specific genes are far more significant.
Typically there is a family history of the illness in these cases.
What are the First Signs of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the same order.
The condition can progress at different speeds too.
Some of the most common signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- problems with how you speak
- issues with swallowing, consuming food and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no cure, but there is hope stemming from treatments focused on various types of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is actually several that result in the death of nerve cells.
A new drug called tofersen is effective in just 2% of patients, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the medication has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK.
There is only one drug currently licensed for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the condition and increase survival by several months, but it does not reverse harm.
What is Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for most, the illness progresses quickly and life expectancy is just a few years.
According to the charity MND Association, the condition kills a third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within two years of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells stop working, swallowing and respiration become more challenging and numerous individuals need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University including four hundred former Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of developing the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have experienced repeated head injuries have biological differences that could render them more susceptible to contracting MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes researched were more likely to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly led to the disease.
The organization also emphasises that "reported MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is merely a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Multiple high-profile sports figures have been identified with the condition in recent years.
This encompasses former rugby union players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the condition at the age of 39.
