Understanding MND and Do Sportspeople At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease affects nerve cells found in the brain and spine, which tell your muscle tissue what to do.
This leads them to lose strength and become rigid gradually and usually affects how you walk, speak, consume food and breathe.
This is a quite uncommon condition that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be affected.
An individual's lifetime risk of developing MND is 1 out of 300.
About 5,000 adults in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.
Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genes - or biological traits - you inherit from your mother and father when you are born, and other environmental influences.
For up to 10% of individuals with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role.
Typically there is a family history of the illness in these cases.
Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Condition?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or encounters them in the same order.
The condition can advance at different speeds too.
Some of the most common signs are:
- muscle weakness and cramps
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in how you speak
- complications involving swallowing, eating and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Cure?
No definitive treatment, but there is optimism stemming from treatments focused on various types of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that result in the demise of nerve cells.
A new drug called tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, 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 "significant point of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the medication has recently been approved in the EU, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
Just one drug currently licensed for the treatment 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 does not reverse damage.
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 age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for the majority, the disease advances rapidly and life expectancy is only several years.
Based on the non-profit MND Association, the disease kills a third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within 24 months of identification.
As the nerve cells cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.
Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
The precise reason has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem disproportionately affected by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an increased risk of developing MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University including four hundred former Scotland rugby union players determined they had an higher likelihood of developing the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have suffered repeated head injuries have physiological variations that could render them more prone to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople researched were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the condition.
The charity also stresses that "reported MND instances in this research is remains quite small, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is merely a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Several high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in recent years.
These include ex- rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.
