What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Be Diagnosed?

MND affects nerves located in the brain and spinal cord, that instruct your muscle tissue how to function.

This causes them to lose strength and stiffen gradually and typically impacts how you walk, speak, consume food and respire.

It is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be affected.

An individual's lifetime risk of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.

About 5,000 adults in the UK are living with the condition at any one time.

Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genes - or biological traits - you get from your parents when you are born, and other environmental influences.

In as many as one in 10 individuals with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.

Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.

What are the Early Symptoms of the Disease?

MND affects everyone differently.

Not all individuals has the identical signs, or encounters them in the identical sequence.

The condition can progress at varying rates too.

Some of the most frequent signs are:

• loss of muscle strength and cramps
• stiff joints
• problems with how you speak
• issues with ingesting, eating and taking fluids
• reduced cough reflex

Is There a Cure?

No definitive treatment, but there is hope coming from treatments focused on various types of MND.

MND is not one disease - it is actually multiple that culminate in the demise of motor neurones.

An innovative medication called tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the symptoms of MND.

It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of optimism" 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 drug presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and endorsed by the NHS.

Riluzole may slow down the progression of the condition and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair harm.

What is Survival Rate for MND?

Some people can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.

But for the majority, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is only several years.

Based on the non-profit MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a third of people within a twelve months and more than half within two years of diagnosis.

As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and breathing become more challenging and numerous individuals need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.

Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?

The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.

A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an increased risk of contracting MND.

A 2022 study by the Glasgow University including 400 former Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the disease.

Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have suffered multiple concussions have biological differences that could render them more prone to contracting MND.

The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.

It noted that while the sportspeople researched were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the condition.

The charity also stresses that "documented MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so concluding there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is merely a cluster due to random chance".

Multiple high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in recent years.

This encompasses former rugby union players, soccer players, and cricketers.

In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.