Understanding MND and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Be Diagnosed?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerves found in the cerebrum and spinal cord, which tell your muscles how to function.
This causes them to weaken and stiffen gradually and usually affects your walking, speak, consume food and respire.
It is a quite uncommon condition that is most common in people above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be affected.
A person's chance in their life of contracting 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 likely to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and additional environmental influences.
For up to 10% of people with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
Typically there is a family history of the disease in such instances.
Identifying the First Signs of the Disease?
MND affects everyone differently.
Not everyone has the identical signs, or experiences them in the identical sequence.
The condition can progress at different speeds too.
Some of the most common signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and cramps
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in how you speak
- complications involving ingesting, eating and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Is There a Cure?
No definitive treatment, but there is optimism stemming from therapies focused on various types of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is really several that result in the death of motor neurones.
A new drug called tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in some cases even reverse - some of the manifestations of MND.
It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of optimism" for the entire condition.
Even though the medication has recently been approved in the EU, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
There is only one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the treatment of MND in the UK and endorsed by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it does not reverse harm.
Determining Life Expectancy for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for most, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.
Based on the non-profit MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a third of people within a year and over 50% within two years of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and breathing 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 exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople seem disproportionately affected by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that professional footballers have an increased risk of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University including four hundred ex- Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the condition.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered repeated head injuries have biological differences that may make them more susceptible to contracting 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 show the athletic activities directly led to the disease.
The organization also stresses that "reported MND cases in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is simply a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Several prominent sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in the past few years.
This encompasses former rugby union players, footballers, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the condition aged 39.
