What is MND and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?

Motor neurone disease impacts nerve cells located in the cerebrum and spine, that instruct your muscles how to function.

This causes them to lose strength and become rigid gradually and typically impacts how you walk, talk, eat and respire.

This is a quite uncommon disease that is most common in people above age fifty, but grown-ups of all ages can be impacted.

A person's chance in their life of contracting MND is one in 300.

About five thousand adults in the UK will have the condition at any one time.

Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you get from your parents when you are born, and additional lifestyle factors.

For up to 10% of individuals with MND, specific genes are far more significant.

There is usually a family history of the illness in such instances.

Identifying the First Signs of the Condition?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

Not everyone has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the same order.

The condition can progress at different speeds too.

Some of the most frequent signs are:

• muscle weakness and muscle spasms
• rigid articulations
• problems with how you speak
• complications involving ingesting, eating and drinking
• weakened coughing

Does There Exist a Treatment?

No cure, but there is hope stemming from treatments targeted at various types of MND.

MND is not one disease - it is actually multiple that result in the death of motor neurones.

A new drug called tofersen is effective in just 2% of patients, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in some cases even reverse - some of the manifestations of MND.

It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "significant point of hope" for the whole disease.

Even though the drug has recently been approved in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK.

Just one drug presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the disease and increase survival by several months, but it cannot repair damage.

Determining Survival Rate for MND?

Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.

But for the majority, the disease advances rapidly and life expectancy is only several years.

Based on the charity MND Association, the condition kills a third of people within a year and over 50% within 24 months of diagnosis.

As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and many people need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.

Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?

The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople appear disproportionately affected by MND.

A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an increased risk of contracting MND.

A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow involving four hundred ex- Scotland rugby athletes concluded they had an increased risk of developing the disease.

Researchers also found that rugby players who have experienced repeated head injuries have physiological variations that may make them more prone to contracting MND.

The MND Association acknowledges there is a "link" between contact sports and MND.

It noted that while the sportspeople researched were more likely to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the condition.

The charity also emphasises 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".

Multiple prominent athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years.

This encompasses ex- rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.

In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.