What is MND and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerve cells located in the brain and spinal cord, that instruct your muscles what to do.
This causes them to weaken and become rigid gradually and typically impacts your walking, speak, eat and breathe.
It is a quite uncommon condition that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but grown-ups of all ages can be affected.
An individual's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.
Approximately 5,000 people 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 genes - or biological traits - you get from your parents when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.
For up to one in 10 people with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.
What are the First Signs of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or experiences them in the identical sequence.
The disease can advance at varying rates too.
Some of the most frequent indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in how you speak
- issues with swallowing, consuming food and taking fluids
- reduced cough reflex
Is There a Cure?
No definitive treatment, but there is hope coming from therapies targeted at different forms of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is really several that culminate in the demise of motor neurones.
An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of patients, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the symptoms of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "significant point of hope" for the entire condition.
Although the drug has recently been approved in the EU, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
Just one drug currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and endorsed by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the condition and prolong life by a few months, but it cannot repair damage.
Determining Survival Rate for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for most, the disease advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.
According to the charity MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a one-third of individuals within a year and more than half within two years of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells cease functioning, swallowing and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.
Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople seem disproportionately affected by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving 400 former Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an higher likelihood of developing the disease.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered multiple concussions have physiological variations that could render them more prone to contracting MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes studied were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the disease.
The organization also emphasises that "reported MND cases in this research is still relatively low, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is simply a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Several high-profile sports figures have been identified with the disease in recent years.
These include ex- rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.
Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.
