🔗 Share this article

MND affects nerve cells located in the cerebrum and spinal cord, that instruct your muscles how to function.

This leads them to lose strength and stiffen over time and typically impacts your walking, talk, consume food and breathe.

It is a relatively rare disease that is most frequent in individuals above age fifty, but grown-ups of all ages can be affected.

An individual's chance in their life of developing MND is 1 out of 300.

Approximately 5,000 people in the UK will have the condition at any one time.

Researchers are not sure what causes MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genetic material - or biological traits - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and additional environmental influences.

For up to 10% of individuals with MND, specific genes play a much larger role.

There is usually a hereditary background of the disease in these cases.

Identifying the First Signs of the Disease?

MND affects everyone differently.

Not everyone has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the same order.

The condition can progress at varying rates too.

Some of the most frequent indicators are:

• loss of muscle strength and cramps
• rigid articulations
• problems with how you speak
• complications involving swallowing, eating and taking fluids
• weakened coughing

Does There Exist a Treatment?

No cure, but there is hope stemming from therapies targeted at different forms of MND.

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

An innovative medication called tofersen works in only one in 50 patients, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even undo - some of the manifestations of MND.

It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of optimism" for the whole disease.

Although the medication has recently received approval in the EU, it is not yet available in the UK.

Just one drug currently licensed for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole could decelerate the progression of the condition and increase survival by a few months, but it does not reverse harm.

Determining Survival Rate for MND?

Certain individuals 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 the majority, 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 one-third of people within a twelve months and more than half within two years of identification.

As the nerve cells cease functioning, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and many people need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.

Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?

The precise reason has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND.

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

A 2022 study by the Glasgow University 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 may make them more susceptible to contracting MND.

The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.

It noted that while the sportspeople researched were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly caused the condition.

The organization also emphasises that "documented MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is merely a grouping due to random chance".

Multiple prominent athletes have been identified with the condition in recent years.

This encompasses ex- rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.

In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.