🔗 Share this article Understanding Motor Neurone Disease and Do Sportspeople More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis? MND affects nerves found in the brain and spinal cord, that instruct your muscles what to do. This causes them to weaken and stiffen over time and typically impacts how you walk, speak, eat and breathe. This is a quite uncommon disease that is most frequent in people above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be impacted. A person's chance in their life of developing MND is 1 out of 300. About 5,000 adults in the UK are living with the disease at any one time. Researchers are not sure what causes MND, but it is probable to be a combination of the genetic material - or biological traits - you inherit from your parents when you are born, and other environmental influences. For up to 10% of people with MND, particular genetic factors play a much larger role. There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in these cases. What are the Early Symptoms of the Condition? MND affects everyone differently. Not everyone has the identical signs, or experiences them in the same order. The condition can progress at varying rates too. Among the most frequent indicators are: loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms rigid articulations problems with your speech complications involving ingesting, eating and taking fluids weakened coughing Is There a Treatment? There is no definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from treatments focused on different forms of MND. MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that result in the demise of nerve cells. A new drug called tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been shown to decelerate - and in certain instances even reverse - a portion of the symptoms of MND. It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "significant point of optimism" for the entire condition. Even though the drug has recently been approved in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK. Just one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS. Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it cannot repair damage. What is Survival Rate for MND? Some people can live for many years with MND, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and survived until 76. But for the majority, the illness advances rapidly and survival time is just a few years. Based on the charity MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within 24 months of identification. As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and breathing become increasingly difficult and many people need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive. Are Athletes More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis? The precise reason has not been identified, but elite athletes seem overrepresented by MND. Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND. Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University including 400 former Scotland rugby athletes concluded they had an increased risk of developing the disease. Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have experienced repeated head injuries have biological differences that could render them more susceptible to developing MND. The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND. It added that while the sportspeople studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not show the athletic activities directly led to the condition. The charity also stresses that "documented MND instances in this research is remains quite small, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is merely a grouping due to statistical coincidence". Several prominent sports figures have been diagnosed with the disease in the past few years. These include former rugby union internationals, soccer players, and cricket athletes. Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the condition aged 39.