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

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

This causes them to weaken and stiffen over time and typically impacts your walking, talk, consume food and breathe.

This is a quite uncommon condition that is most common in people over 50, but grown-ups of any age can be impacted.

A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.

Approximately 5,000 adults in the UK are living with the condition at any given moment.

Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you get from your parents when you are delivered, and other environmental influences.

In as many as 10% of people with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.

Typically there is a family history of the illness in such instances.

What are the Early Symptoms of the Disease?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

Not everyone has the identical signs, or experiences them in the identical sequence.

The condition can advance at varying rates too.

Some of the most common indicators are:

• muscle weakness and muscle spasms
• stiff joints
• difficulties in your speech
• complications involving swallowing, eating and taking fluids
• weakened coughing

Does There Exist a Cure?

There is no cure, but there is hope coming from treatments targeted at various types of MND.

MND is not a single illness - it is really multiple that culminate in the death of nerve cells.

An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even reverse - some of the manifestations of MND.

It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "significant point of hope" for the entire condition.

Even though the medication has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.

Just one pharmaceutical presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the disease and increase survival by a few months, but it cannot repair harm.

Determining Life Expectancy for MND?

Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, such as renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.

But for the majority, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.

According to the charity MND Association, the disease kills a one-third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within 24 months of identification.

As the neurons stop working, swallowing and respiration become increasingly difficult and many people need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.

Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?

The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople appear disproportionately affected by MND.

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

Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow including four hundred ex- Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an higher likelihood of developing the condition.

Scientists also found that rugby athletes who have suffered multiple concussions have biological differences that may make them more prone to developing MND.

The MND Association recognizes there is a "link" between contact sports and MND.

It noted that while the athletes studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not show the athletic activities directly led to the disease.

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

Several prominent sports figures have been identified with the disease in the past few years.

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

In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition aged 39.