What is MND and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
MND impacts nerve cells located in the brain and spinal cord, which tell your muscle tissue what to do.
This causes them to weaken and become rigid over time and typically impacts how you walk, speak, consume food and breathe.
This is a relatively rare disease that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but adults of any age can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
About five thousand adults in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.
Scientists are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your parents when you are delivered, and additional lifestyle factors.
In as many as one in 10 people with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in such instances.
What are the First Signs of the Disease?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not all individuals has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the same order.
The disease can advance at different speeds too.
Among the most common indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- problems with how you speak
- complications involving ingesting, consuming food and drinking
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Cure?
There is no definitive treatment, but there is hope stemming from treatments focused on different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that result in the death of nerve cells.
A new drug called tofersen is effective in only one in 50 patients, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in some cases even reverse - a portion of the symptoms of MND.
It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of hope" for the entire condition.
Although the drug has recently been approved in the EU, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
Just one pharmaceutical presently approved for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the progression of the disease and prolong life by a few months, but it cannot repair damage.
Determining Survival Rate for MND?
Some people 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 the majority, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is just a few years.
Based on the charity MND Association, the condition kills a third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within two years of diagnosis.
As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and many people need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.
Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that soccer players have an elevated chance of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow including four hundred ex- Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an increased risk of acquiring the condition.
Scientists 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 "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople researched were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not prove the sports directly led to the disease.
The charity also stresses that "documented MND instances in this research is still relatively low, and so concluding there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is simply a cluster due to random chance".
Several high-profile athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in the past few years.
This encompasses former rugby players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.
