What is Motor Neurone Disease and Do Sportspeople At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerve cells located in the brain and spine, which tell your muscles how to function.
This causes them to lose strength and stiffen over time and typically impacts how you walk, talk, consume food and breathe.
It is a quite uncommon condition that is most common in individuals over 50, but adults of all ages can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.
About five thousand adults in the UK will have the disease at any given moment.
Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genes - or biological traits - you inherit from your parents when you are delivered, and additional environmental influences.
For up to 10% of individuals with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in these cases.
Identifying the First Signs of the Condition?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
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 frequent indicators are:
- muscle weakness and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- difficulties in how you speak
- issues with ingesting, consuming food and drinking
- reduced cough reflex
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no definitive treatment, but there is hope stemming from treatments focused on different forms of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is actually several that culminate in the demise of motor neurones.
An innovative medication called tofersen is effective in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been shown to slow - and in certain instances even undo - 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 medication has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK.
Just one drug presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair harm.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.
But for most, the illness progresses quickly and life expectancy is only several years.
Based on the non-profit MND Association, the disease kills a third of people within a year and over 50% within 24 months of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and breathing become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.
Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?
The precise reason has not been identified, but elite athletes appear disproportionately affected by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving four hundred former Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of acquiring the condition.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered multiple concussions have physiological variations that could render them more prone to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "link" between collision sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople researched were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not show the athletic activities directly caused the disease.
The charity also stresses that "reported MND cases in this research is remains quite small, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is simply a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Several prominent athletes have been identified with the disease in recent years.
These include former rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition at the age of 39.