Understanding MND and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerves located in the brain and spinal cord, that instruct your muscles how to function.
This causes them to weaken and become rigid gradually and usually affects how you walk, talk, eat and respire.
This is a relatively rare disease 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.
Approximately 5,000 adults in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.
Researchers are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genetic material - or biological traits - you get from your mother and father when you are delivered, and additional environmental influences.
For up to one in 10 individuals with MND, specific genes are far more significant.
There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in these cases.
What are the Early Symptoms of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or encounters them in the identical sequence.
The disease can advance at varying rates too.
Some of the most frequent indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- problems with how you speak
- issues with swallowing, consuming food and drinking
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Treatment?
No definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from treatments focused on different forms of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is actually several that culminate in the death of nerve cells.
An innovative medication called tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in certain instances even reverse - some of the symptoms of MND.
It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease.
Although the medication has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK.
There is only one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the treatment 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 damage.
What is Survival Rate for MND?
Certain individuals 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 disease advances rapidly and survival time is just a few years.
Based on the non-profit MND Association, the condition kills a one-third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within two years of diagnosis.
As the neurons cease functioning, swallowing and breathing become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.
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 soccer players have an increased risk of developing MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving 400 ex- Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of developing the disease.
Researchers also found that rugby players who have experienced multiple concussions have physiological variations that may make them more prone to developing MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the condition.
The organization also stresses that "reported MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is merely a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Multiple high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in recent years.
These include former rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig died from the disease at the age of 39.
