What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?

Motor neurone disease impacts nerves located in the brain and spine, which tell your muscle tissue how to function.

This causes them to lose strength and become rigid over time and usually affects how you walk, talk, eat and respire.

This is a quite uncommon disease that is most common in people over 50, but grown-ups of all ages can be impacted.

A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.

Approximately 5,000 adults in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.

Scientists are uncertain what causes MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your mother and father when you are born, and other environmental influences.

In as many as one in 10 people with MND, specific genes are far more significant.

There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in such instances.

Identifying the First Signs of the Condition?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

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

The disease can progress at varying rates too.

Among the most common indicators are:

• loss of muscle strength and cramps
• rigid articulations
• difficulties in your speech
• complications involving swallowing, consuming food and taking fluids
• weakened coughing

Does There Exist a Cure?

There is no cure, but there is hope coming from therapies focused on different forms of MND.

MND is not one disease - it is really several that culminate in the death of nerve cells.

An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even reverse - a portion of the manifestations of MND.

It has been referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "significant point of optimism" for the entire condition.

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

There is only one pharmaceutical presently approved for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the condition and prolong life by several months, but it does not reverse 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 age of 22 and survived until 76.

But for most, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is only several years.

Based on the non-profit MND Association, the condition kills a one-third of individuals within a year and more than half within 24 months of diagnosis.

As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.

Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?

The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem disproportionately affected by MND.

Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of contracting MND.

A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow including four hundred former Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of developing the condition.

Researchers also found that rugby athletes who have suffered multiple concussions have physiological variations that may make them more susceptible to contracting MND.

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

It noted that while the athletes studied were more likely to acquire MND, it did not prove the sports directly led to the disease.

The organization also stresses that "documented MND cases in this research is remains quite small, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is simply a grouping due to random chance".

Multiple high-profile athletes have been identified with the disease in recent years.

This encompasses ex- rugby union internationals, footballers, and cricket athletes.

In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the condition at the age of 39.