Understanding MND and Are Athletes At Higher Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
Motor neurone disease impacts nerves found in the cerebrum and spinal cord, that instruct your muscle tissue what to do.
This leads them to lose strength and stiffen gradually and usually affects how you walk, speak, consume food and breathe.
This is a quite uncommon disease that is most common in people above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be impacted.
An individual's chance in their life of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.
Approximately five thousand people in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.
Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genetic material - or biological traits - you inherit from your mother and father when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.
For up to 10% of people with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.
There is usually a family history of the illness in such instances.
Identifying 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 signs are:
- loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
- rigid articulations
- difficulties in how you speak
- complications involving ingesting, consuming food and taking fluids
- weakened coughing
Does There Exist a Cure?
No cure, but there is hope stemming from treatments focused on various types of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is really several that result in the demise of motor neurones.
An innovative medication known as tofersen is effective in only one in 50 patients, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in certain instances even undo - 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 drug has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not yet available 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 a few months, but it cannot repair harm.
Determining Survival Rate for MND?
Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.
But for most, the disease advances rapidly and life expectancy is only several years.
According to the non-profit MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a third of people within a twelve months and more than half within two years of diagnosis.
As the neurons stop working, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and many people need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.
Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?
The exact cause has not been identified, but elite athletes seem disproportionately affected by MND.
Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving four hundred former Scotland rugby athletes determined they had an higher likelihood of acquiring the condition.
Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have suffered multiple concussions have physiological variations that may make them more susceptible to contracting MND.
The MND Association acknowledges there is a "link" between contact sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople studied were more likely to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly led to the disease.
The organization also emphasises that "documented MND cases in this research is remains quite small, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misunderstood if this is merely a cluster due to statistical coincidence".
Multiple prominent athletes have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years.
This encompasses ex- rugby internationals, footballers, and cricketers.
Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.