🔗 Share this article

MND impacts nerve cells located in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscle tissue how to function.

This causes them to lose strength and stiffen over time and usually affects your walking, speak, eat and breathe.

This is a relatively rare condition that is most frequent in individuals over 50, but adults of any age can be impacted.

A person's lifetime risk of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.

About 5,000 adults in the UK will have the disease at any given moment.

Researchers are uncertain the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you get from your mother and father when you are delivered, and other lifestyle factors.

For up to one in 10 individuals with MND, specific genes are far more significant.

There is usually a hereditary background of the illness in such instances.

Identifying the First Signs of the Disease?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

Not everyone has the identical signs, or encounters them in the identical sequence.

The disease can progress at varying rates too.

Among the most frequent signs are:

• muscle weakness and muscle spasms
• stiff joints
• problems with how you speak
• issues with ingesting, consuming food and taking fluids
• weakened coughing

Is There a Treatment?

There is no cure, but there is optimism stemming from treatments targeted at different forms of MND.

MND is not one disease - it is actually several that culminate in the demise of motor neurones.

An innovative medication known as tofersen is effective in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even undo - some of the manifestations of MND.

It has been referred to as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the entire condition.

Although the drug has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.

There is only one drug currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole may slow down the progression of the disease and prolong life by a few months, but it does not reverse harm.

Determining Survival Rate for MND?

Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.

But for most, the illness progresses quickly and life expectancy is just a few years.

According to the charity MND Association, the disease claims the lives of a third of people within a twelve months and more than half within two years of identification.

As the neurons stop working, swallowing and breathing become more challenging and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.

Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?

The exact cause has not yet been found, but elite athletes seem disproportionately affected by MND.

Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an elevated chance of developing MND.

Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving 400 former Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of acquiring the condition.

Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced repeated head injuries have biological differences that could render them more prone 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 sports directly led to the condition.

The charity also stresses that "documented MND cases in this research is still relatively low, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is simply a cluster due to statistical coincidence".

Several prominent sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in the past few years.

These include ex- rugby union players, footballers, and cricketers.

Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition at the age of 39.