Understanding MND and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerve cells found in the cerebrum and spinal cord, which tell your muscles how to function.
This leads them to lose strength and become rigid gradually and usually affects how you walk, talk, eat and respire.
It is a relatively rare condition that is most common in individuals over 50, but adults of all ages can be affected.
An individual's chance in their life of developing MND is 1 out of 300.
Approximately five thousand adults in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.
Scientists are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and additional environmental influences.
For up to 10% of people with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
There is usually a hereditary background 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 identical sequence.
The condition can progress at different speeds too.
Some of the most frequent signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- problems with how you speak
- complications involving ingesting, eating and drinking
- reduced cough reflex
Is There a Treatment?
No definitive treatment, but there is hope stemming from therapies targeted at different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually multiple that result in the death of nerve cells.
A new drug called tofersen works in only one in 50 patients, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in some cases even reverse - a portion of the manifestations of MND.
It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease.
Even though the drug 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 treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the progression of the disease and increase survival by several months, but it does not reverse damage.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for most, the illness progresses quickly and life expectancy is only several years.
Based on the charity MND Association, the disease kills a third of people within a year and over 50% within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons stop working, swallowing and respiration become more challenging and numerous individuals need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople appear disproportionately affected by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND.
A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow including 400 former Scotland rugby athletes concluded they had an increased risk of acquiring the disease.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered repeated head injuries have physiological variations that could render them more susceptible to contracting MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "link" between contact sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes studied were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not prove the sports directly caused the disease.
The organization also emphasises that "reported MND instances in these studies 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".
Several high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years.
These include ex- rugby union players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.