What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
MND affects nerve cells located in the cerebrum and spine, that instruct your muscle tissue how to function.
This causes them to weaken and stiffen over time and typically impacts how you walk, speak, consume food and breathe.
This is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in individuals over 50, but adults of all ages can be impacted.
A person's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.
Approximately five thousand adults in the UK are living with the condition at any one time.
Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you get from your mother and father when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.
In as many as one in 10 people with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.
There is usually a family history of the disease in these cases.
What are the First Signs of the Disease?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or encounters them in the same order.
The condition can advance at varying rates too.
Among the most common signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- difficulties in how you speak
- complications involving ingesting, eating and taking fluids
- reduced cough reflex
Is There a Cure?
No definitive treatment, but there is optimism stemming from therapies 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 demonstrated to decelerate - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "significant point of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the drug has recently been approved in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK.
There is only one drug currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and endorsed by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the progression of the condition and increase survival by a few months, but it does not reverse harm.
What is Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for most, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is only several years.
According to the non-profit MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a third of people within a year and more than half within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons stop working, ingestion and breathing become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.
Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?
The precise reason has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an increased risk of developing MND.
A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow including four hundred former Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of acquiring the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced repeated head injuries have physiological variations that may make them more susceptible to developing MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It added that while the sportspeople researched were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the disease.
The organization also emphasises that "documented MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so concluding there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is merely a cluster due to random chance".
Multiple prominent athletes have been identified with the disease in the past few years.
This encompasses ex- rugby players, footballers, and cricketers.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition at the age of 39.
