What is Motor Neurone Disease and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease affects nerves located in the cerebrum and spinal cord, which tell your muscles how to function.
This leads them to weaken and stiffen over time and usually affects your walking, talk, eat and respire.
This is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in individuals over 50, but grown-ups of any age can be affected.
A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
Approximately five thousand people in the UK are living with the disease at any one time.
Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a combination of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your parents when you are born, and other environmental influences.
In as many as one in 10 people with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the disease in these cases.
What are the Early Symptoms of the Condition?
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or encounters them in the identical sequence.
The disease can progress at different speeds too.
Among the most common indicators are:
- muscle weakness and muscle spasms
- stiff joints
- problems with how you speak
- complications involving swallowing, eating and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Is There a Treatment?
There is no definitive treatment, but there is hope coming from treatments targeted at different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually multiple that culminate in the death of motor neurones.
A new drug called tofersen is effective in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in certain instances even reverse - some of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of optimism" for the entire condition.
Even though the medication has recently received approval in the EU, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
Just one drug currently licensed for the treatment of MND in the UK and endorsed by the NHS.
Riluzole may slow down the progression of the disease and increase survival by several months, but it does not reverse harm.
Determining Survival Rate for MND?
Some people can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.
But for most, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is only several years.
According to the non-profit MND Association, the disease kills a one-third of people within a year and over 50% within two years of diagnosis.
As the neurons cease functioning, swallowing and breathing become more challenging and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople seem disproportionately affected by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 showed that professional footballers have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving 400 former Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of acquiring the disease.
Researchers also found that rugby players who have suffered multiple concussions have physiological variations that could render them more susceptible to contracting MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.
It added that while the sportspeople studied were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the condition.
The organization also emphasises that "documented MND cases in this research is still relatively low, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misinterpreted if this is merely a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Several high-profile athletes have been identified with the condition in the past few years.
These include former rugby union internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.
Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.
