What is Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease affects nerves found in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscle tissue how to function.
This causes them to lose strength and become rigid gradually and typically impacts your walking, speak, eat and breathe.
It is a relatively rare disease that is most common in individuals above age fifty, but adults of any age can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.
Approximately five thousand people in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.
Scientists are not sure what causes MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you get from your parents when you are born, and additional environmental influences.
In as many as one in 10 individuals with MND, specific genes are far more significant.
There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in these cases.
What are the Early Symptoms of the Condition?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or experiences them in the identical sequence.
The condition can progress at varying rates too.
Some of the most common signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- problems with your speech
- issues with swallowing, consuming food and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no cure, but there is hope coming from therapies focused on various types of MND.
MND is not one disease - it is actually multiple that result in the death of nerve cells.
An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in some cases even undo - a portion of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "significant point of optimism" for the whole disease.
Even though 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 endorsed by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the disease and increase survival by a few months, but it does not reverse harm.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.
But for most, the disease advances rapidly and life expectancy is only several years.
Based on the non-profit MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a third of people within a twelve months and over 50% within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and many people need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.
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 showed that soccer players have an increased risk of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving 400 former Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the condition.
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 collision sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes researched were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the disease.
The charity also stresses that "documented MND cases in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is merely a cluster due to random chance".
Several high-profile athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in the past few years.
This encompasses ex- rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.
In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition at the age of 39.