What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Be Diagnosed?
Motor neurone disease affects nerve cells found in the brain and spinal cord, which tell your muscles what to do.
This causes them to weaken and stiffen over time and typically impacts how you walk, talk, eat and breathe.
This is a quite uncommon condition that is most frequent in people above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be impacted.
An individual's lifetime risk of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.
About 5,000 adults in the UK will have the disease at any one time.
Researchers are not sure the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genes - or biological traits - you inherit from your parents when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.
For up to one in 10 people with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the disease in such instances.
Identifying the First Signs of the Disease?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or encounters them in the same order.
The disease can advance at varying rates too.
Some of the most common signs are:
- muscle weakness and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- problems with how you speak
- issues with ingesting, eating and drinking
- weakened coughing
Is There a Cure?
No definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from therapies targeted at different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that culminate in the death of motor neurones.
An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of patients, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in some cases even undo - a portion 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 medication has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
There is only one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the progression of the condition and increase survival by several months, but it cannot repair harm.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.
But for most, the disease progresses quickly and life expectancy is just a few years.
Based on the non-profit MND Association, the disease kills a third of people within a twelve months and more than half within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons stop working, ingestion and breathing become more challenging and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?
The precise reason has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that soccer players have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University involving 400 ex- Scotland rugby athletes concluded they had an increased risk of developing the disease.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced multiple concussions have biological differences that may make them more susceptible to contracting MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople studied were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not show the athletic activities 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 misinterpreted if this is merely a grouping due to random chance".
Multiple high-profile athletes have been diagnosed with the condition in the past few years.
These include ex- rugby union players, footballers, and cricketers.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the disease at the age of 39.
