Understanding Motor Neurone Disease and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Be Diagnosed?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerve cells found in the cerebrum and spinal cord, that instruct your muscles what to do.
This leads them to lose strength and become rigid gradually and usually affects how you walk, speak, eat and respire.
It is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be impacted.
A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
About 5,000 adults in the UK will have the disease at any given moment.
Scientists are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genes - or biological traits - you get from your parents when you are born, and other environmental influences.
For up to one in 10 people with MND, specific genes are far more significant.
Typically there is a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.
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.
Among the most common signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in your speech
- issues with ingesting, eating and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Treatment?
There is no cure, but there is optimism coming from treatments focused on different forms of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that culminate in the demise of nerve cells.
An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in certain instances even reverse - some of the symptoms of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease.
Although the medication has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
There is only one drug presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the progression of the condition and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair harm.
Determining Survival Rate for MND?
Some people can survive for decades with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.
But for most, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is just a few years.
According to the non-profit MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a one-third of individuals within a year and more than half within two years of identification.
As the neurons cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them remain living.
Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not yet been found, but elite athletes appear disproportionately affected by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that soccer players have an increased risk of contracting MND.
Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University involving 400 ex- Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an increased risk of developing the disease.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered repeated head injuries have physiological variations that may make them more susceptible to contracting MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "link" between collision sports and MND.
It noted that while the athletes studied were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the disease.
The charity also stresses that "documented MND instances in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is simply a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Several prominent athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in the past few years.
These include former rugby internationals, footballers, and cricket athletes.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition at the age of 39.
