Understanding Motor Neurone Disease and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?

MND affects nerves located in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscles what to do.

This leads them to lose strength and become rigid over time and typically impacts how you walk, speak, consume food and breathe.

It is a quite uncommon condition that is most frequent in people above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be impacted.

A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.

About 5,000 people in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.

Scientists are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your parents when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.

For up to one in 10 people with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.

Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in such instances.

Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Disease?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

Not everyone has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the same order.

The disease can advance at varying rates too.

Among the most common indicators are:

• loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
• stiff joints
• difficulties in how you speak
• issues with ingesting, eating and drinking
• weakened coughing

Does There Exist a Cure?

No cure, but there is hope stemming from therapies focused on different forms of MND.

MND is not a single illness - it is really multiple that culminate in the demise of motor neurones.

A new drug called tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the symptoms of MND.

It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "significant point of hope" for the whole disease.

Even though the medication has recently been approved in the EU, it is not currently accessible in the UK.

Just one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole may slow down the progression of the disease and prolong life by a few months, but it cannot repair harm.

What is Survival Rate for MND?

Some people can live for many years with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.

But for the majority, the disease advances rapidly and survival time is just a few years.

According to the non-profit MND Association, the condition kills a one-third of people within a twelve months and more than half within two years of identification.

As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and many people 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 elite athletes seem overrepresented by MND.

Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that soccer players have an elevated chance of developing MND.

A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving four hundred ex- Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the condition.

Researchers also found that rugby athletes who have suffered repeated head injuries have physiological variations that could render them more prone to contracting MND.

The MND Association acknowledges there is a "link" between collision sports and MND.

It added that while the sportspeople studied were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly caused the condition.

The organization also emphasises that "documented MND instances in these studies is remains quite small, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is merely a cluster due to random chance".

Multiple high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in the past few years.

This encompasses former rugby union internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.

Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.