Understanding Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?

MND impacts nerves located in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscle tissue what to do.

This causes them to lose strength and become rigid over time and typically impacts your walking, talk, consume food and breathe.

This is a relatively rare condition that is most common in individuals above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be impacted.

A person's chance in their life of developing MND is 1 out of 300.

Approximately 5,000 people in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.

Scientists are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genetic material - or biological traits - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and other lifestyle factors.

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

Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in such instances.

Identifying 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 disease can advance at varying rates too.

Some of the most frequent signs are:

• loss of muscle strength and cramps
• stiff joints
• problems with your speech
• issues with swallowing, consuming food and taking fluids
• weakened coughing

Is There a Cure?

No definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from therapies focused on different forms of MND.

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

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

It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease.

Although the medication has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK.

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

Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the condition and prolong life by several 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 identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.

But for most, the illness progresses quickly and life expectancy is only several years.

According to the charity MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a one-third of people within a twelve months and over 50% within 24 months of identification.

As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.

Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?

The precise reason has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND.

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

Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving 400 ex- Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of developing the condition.

Scientists additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced multiple concussions have biological differences that could render them more susceptible to developing MND.

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

It added that while the sportspeople studied were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not prove the sports directly caused the condition.

The charity also emphasises that "reported MND cases in these studies is remains quite small, 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 athletes have been identified with the disease in recent years.

These include ex- rugby union internationals, soccer players, and cricket athletes.

Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig died from the condition aged 39.