What is Motor Neurone Disease and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
Motor neurone disease affects nerve cells found in the cerebrum and spinal cord, which tell your muscles how to function.
This leads them to lose strength and become rigid over time and typically impacts how you walk, talk, consume food and respire.
This is a relatively rare condition that is most frequent in people above age fifty, but grown-ups 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 are living with the disease at any one time.
Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is likely to be a combination of the genetic material - or biological traits - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and additional environmental influences.
For up to 10% of individuals with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role.
There is usually a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.
What are the First Signs of the Disease?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not all individuals has the same symptoms, or experiences them in the same order.
The disease can progress at varying rates too.
Among the most common indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in how you speak
- complications involving swallowing, eating and taking fluids
- reduced cough reflex
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no cure, but there is optimism coming from treatments targeted at different forms of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is really multiple that culminate in the demise of nerve cells.
An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of patients, however it has been shown to slow - and in some cases even reverse - some of the symptoms of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease.
Even though the drug has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not yet available 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 a few months, but it cannot repair harm.
What is Survival Rate for MND?
Some people can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old 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 kills a third of people within a year and more than half within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Are Athletes More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University including 400 ex- Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of developing the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced repeated head injuries have biological differences that may make them more susceptible to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes researched were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the condition.
The charity also emphasises that "documented MND cases in this research is still relatively low, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is merely a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Several high-profile sports figures have been identified with the condition in the past few years.
This encompasses former rugby players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.
