Understanding Motor Neurone Disease and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerves located in the brain and spinal cord, which tell your muscle tissue what to do.
This leads them to lose strength and become rigid over time and typically impacts how you walk, speak, eat and breathe.
It is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be affected.
A person's chance in their life of contracting MND is one in 300.
Approximately five thousand adults in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.
Researchers are uncertain what causes 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 additional 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 disease in such instances.
What are the First Signs of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or encounters them in the identical sequence.
The disease can progress at different speeds too.
Among the most common indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and cramps
- stiff joints
- difficulties in your speech
- complications involving swallowing, eating and drinking
- reduced cough reflex
Is There a Cure?
No cure, but there is hope stemming from treatments focused on various types of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that culminate in the demise of motor neurones.
A new drug called tofersen is effective 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 referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "significant point of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the drug has recently received approval in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK.
Just one pharmaceutical presently approved for the management of MND in the UK and endorsed by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the progression of the condition and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair harm.
Determining Survival Rate 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 lived to 76.
But for most, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.
According to the charity MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a one-third of people within a twelve months and more than half within 24 months of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells cease functioning, swallowing and breathing become increasingly difficult and many people need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but elite athletes appear overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that soccer players have an increased risk of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow including four hundred former Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of developing the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced repeated head injuries have physiological variations that may make them more prone to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes researched were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the condition.
The charity also stresses that "documented MND instances in this research is still relatively low, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is simply a cluster due to random chance".
Multiple high-profile sports figures have been identified with the condition in recent years.
This encompasses former rugby players, footballers, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.
