What is MND and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerve cells found in the brain and spine, which tell your muscles how to function.
This causes them to weaken and become rigid over time and typically impacts your walking, speak, consume food and breathe.
This is a quite uncommon disease that is most common in individuals over 50, but adults of any age can be impacted.
A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
Approximately 5,000 people in the UK are living with the disease at any one time.
Scientists are not sure what causes MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genes - or biological traits - you inherit from your parents when you are born, and other environmental influences.
In as many as one in 10 people with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
Typically there is a family history of the illness in these cases.
Identifying the First Signs of the Disease?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or experiences them in the same order.
The disease can advance at different speeds too.
Some of the most frequent indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- problems with your speech
- issues with swallowing, consuming food and drinking
- reduced cough reflex
Does There Exist a Cure?
No definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from therapies focused on various types of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is really multiple that result in the demise of motor neurones.
An innovative medication known as tofersen is effective in only one in 50 patients, however it has been shown to slow - and in certain instances even undo - some of the symptoms of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the medication has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK.
Just one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the progression of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it does not reverse harm.
What is Survival Rate for MND?
Some people can live for many years with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.
But for the majority, the illness progresses quickly and life expectancy is just a few years.
According to the charity MND Association, the condition kills a third of individuals within a year and more than half within 24 months of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and many people need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.
Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving four hundred ex- Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of acquiring the condition.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have experienced multiple concussions have biological differences 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 researched were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not prove the sports directly led to the condition.
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 misunderstood if this is simply a cluster due to random chance".
Several high-profile athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years.
These include former rugby union players, footballers, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease at the age of 39.
