What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Be Diagnosed?
MND affects nerve cells found in the brain and spine, which tell your muscle tissue how to function.
This causes them to lose strength and stiffen over time and usually affects your walking, talk, consume food and respire.
It is a relatively rare condition that is most frequent in individuals over 50, but adults of all ages can be affected.
An individual's chance in their life of contracting MND is one in 300.
About five thousand people in the UK will have the disease at any one time.
Researchers are not sure the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genetic material - or biological traits - you inherit from your parents when you are born, and additional lifestyle factors.
In as many as one in 10 individuals with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.
What are the First Signs of the Disease?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not everyone has the same symptoms, or experiences them in the same order.
The condition can progress at different speeds too.
Some of the most frequent indicators are:
- muscle weakness and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- problems with your speech
- issues with ingesting, eating and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Is There a Cure?
No cure, but there is optimism stemming from therapies focused on different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually multiple that culminate in the demise of nerve cells.
An innovative medication called tofersen works in only one in 50 patients, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in some cases even undo - some of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "significant point of optimism" for the whole disease.
Although the drug has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
There is only one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair damage.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Some people can live for many years with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.
But for most, the disease progresses quickly and survival time is only several years.
Based on the charity MND Association, the condition kills a third of individuals within a twelve months and more than half within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and breathing become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.
Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but elite athletes seem overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an increased risk of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University including four hundred former Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of developing the condition.
Researchers also found that rugby players who have suffered multiple concussions have physiological variations that could render them more susceptible to developing MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It noted that while the athletes studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly caused the condition.
The charity also emphasises that "reported MND instances in these studies is still relatively low, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is simply a cluster due to random chance".
Multiple prominent sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in the past few years.
These include former rugby internationals, footballers, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the disease at the age of 39.
