Understanding MND and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
MND impacts nerve cells located in the brain and spinal cord, that instruct your muscle tissue what to do.
This causes them to lose strength and stiffen gradually and usually affects your walking, speak, eat and breathe.
It is a quite uncommon condition that is most common in people above age fifty, but adults of any age can be impacted.
An individual's chance in their life of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.
Approximately five thousand adults in the UK are living with the condition at any given moment.
Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your mother and father when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.
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 such instances.
Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Disease?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not everyone has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the same order.
The disease can advance at varying rates too.
Some of the most frequent indicators are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- problems with how you speak
- complications involving swallowing, consuming food and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Is There a Cure?
There is no definitive treatment, but there is hope stemming from treatments targeted at different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually multiple that result in the death of nerve cells.
An innovative medication called tofersen is effective in just 2% of 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 "absolutely groundbreaking" 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 currently accessible in the UK.
Just one drug currently licensed for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the progression of the disease and increase survival by a few months, but it cannot repair harm.
What is Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.
But for the majority, the disease progresses quickly and survival time is only several years.
Based on the charity MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a third of individuals within a twelve months and more than half within two years of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and many people need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.
Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
The precise reason has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that professional footballers have an increased risk of developing MND.
A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow including 400 ex- Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of acquiring the condition.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have suffered repeated head injuries have physiological variations that could render them more prone to developing MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It added that while the athletes researched were more likely 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 definite increased risk could be misunderstood if this is simply a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Multiple high-profile athletes have been identified with the disease in recent years.
These include former rugby players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.
