Understanding Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Be Diagnosed?
MND impacts nerve cells found in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscles what to do.
This leads them to weaken and stiffen gradually and typically impacts your walking, speak, eat and breathe.
It is a relatively rare condition that is most common in individuals over 50, but adults of any age can be affected.
An individual's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.
About five thousand adults in the UK will have the disease at any given moment.
Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your parents when you are born, and additional lifestyle factors.
For up to 10% of people with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.
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 disease can progress at varying rates too.
Some of the most common indicators are:
- muscle weakness and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in how you speak
- issues with ingesting, consuming food and drinking
- weakened coughing
Is There a Treatment?
There is no definitive treatment, but there is optimism stemming from therapies targeted at various types of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is really several that result in the death of motor neurones.
An innovative medication called tofersen is effective in only one in 50 individuals, 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 "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "significant point of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the medication has recently been approved in the EU, it is not currently accessible 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 disease and increase survival by several months, but it does not reverse damage.
Determining Survival Rate for MND?
Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.
But for most, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is only several years.
According to the charity MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a one-third of people within a year and more than half within 24 months of identification.
As the nerve cells stop working, swallowing and respiration become more challenging and many people need feeding tubes 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 elite athletes seem overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving 400 ex- Scotland rugby union players determined they had an higher likelihood of developing the disease.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have suffered multiple concussions have biological differences that may make them more susceptible to developing MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople studied were more likely to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly led to the condition.
The charity also stresses that "reported MND instances in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is simply a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Multiple high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in recent years.
This encompasses former rugby union players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease at the age of 39.