What is MND and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
MND impacts nerve cells located in the cerebrum and spinal cord, which tell your muscle tissue how to function.
This leads them to weaken and stiffen gradually and typically impacts your walking, speak, eat and respire.
It is a relatively rare condition that is most frequent in people above age fifty, but grown-ups of all ages can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
Approximately five thousand people in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.
Scientists are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genetic material - or biological traits - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and additional environmental influences.
In as many as one in 10 people with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role.
Typically there is a family history of the disease in such instances.
Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Condition?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or experiences them in the same order.
The disease can advance at different speeds too.
Some of the most common signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- difficulties in how you speak
- complications involving swallowing, consuming food and drinking
- reduced cough reflex
Does There Exist a Treatment?
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 several that result in the demise of motor neurones.
An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even undo - some of the manifestations of MND.
It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of optimism" for the whole disease.
Even though the medication has recently been approved in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK.
Just one pharmaceutical presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair harm.
What is Survival Rate for MND?
Some people can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and survived until 76.
But for the majority, the illness advances rapidly and survival time is just a few years.
According to the non-profit MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a third of individuals within a year and more than half within 24 months of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, swallowing and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.
Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?
The precise reason has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an increased risk of contracting MND.
A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow including four hundred ex- Scotland rugby athletes concluded they had an increased risk of acquiring the condition.
Researchers also found that rugby players 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 added that while the athletes studied were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the athletic activities directly led to the disease.
The charity also emphasises that "reported MND instances in this research is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a definite increased risk could be misunderstood if this is simply a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Several prominent sports figures have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years.
These include ex- rugby players, footballers, and cricketers.
Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease at the age of 39.
