What is MND and Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease affects nerve cells found in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscles how to function.
This leads them to lose strength and stiffen gradually and usually affects your walking, talk, eat and breathe.
It is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in people above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.
Approximately 5,000 people in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.
Researchers are not sure the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and additional lifestyle factors.
In as many as 10% of people with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role.
There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in such instances.
Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or encounters them in the same order.
The disease can advance at varying rates too.
Some of the most frequent signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- difficulties in your speech
- complications involving ingesting, consuming food and taking fluids
- reduced cough reflex
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from therapies focused on various types of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually multiple that culminate in the death of nerve cells.
An innovative medication called tofersen is effective in only one in 50 patients, however it has been shown to slow - and in certain instances even undo - a portion of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of optimism" for the whole disease.
Even though the medication has recently been approved 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 harm.
What is Survival Rate for MND?
Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, including renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for the majority, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.
According to the charity MND Association, the disease kills a third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within two years of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, swallowing and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.
Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
The precise reason has not been identified, but elite athletes seem overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an increased risk of contracting MND.
A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow involving 400 former Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of acquiring the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced multiple concussions have biological differences that may make them more susceptible to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "link" between contact sports and MND.
It added that while the sportspeople studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the disease.
The charity also stresses that "reported MND cases in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is merely a grouping due to random chance".
Multiple high-profile sports figures have been identified with the disease in recent years.
These include ex- rugby players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease at the age of 39.
