🔗 Share this article Understanding MND and Are Athletes More Likely to Be Diagnosed? MND affects nerves found in the brain and spine, which tell your muscles how to function. This leads them to weaken and become rigid gradually and typically impacts your walking, speak, eat and breathe. This is a relatively rare condition that is most common in people above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be impacted. A person's lifetime risk of developing MND is 1 out of 300. About five thousand people in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment. Researchers are not sure the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genetic material - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your parents when you are born, and additional environmental influences. In as many as 10% of individuals with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant. There is usually a family history of the disease in these cases. Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Disease? MND impacts each person uniquely. Not all individuals has the same symptoms, or encounters them in the identical sequence. The disease can progress at different speeds too. Some of the most common signs are: loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms stiff joints problems with how you speak issues with swallowing, eating and drinking weakened coughing Is There a Treatment? There is no cure, but there is optimism stemming from therapies targeted at different forms of MND. MND is not one disease - it is actually multiple that culminate in the demise of motor neurones. A new drug known as tofersen works in just 2% of individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even reverse - a portion of the symptoms of MND. It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of hope" for the whole disease. Although the medication has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK. There is only one pharmaceutical currently licensed for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS. Riluzole may slow down the advancement of the disease and increase survival by a few months, but it cannot repair damage. Determining Life Expectancy for MND? Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76. But for the majority, the disease progresses quickly and life expectancy is just a few years. Based on the charity MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a third of individuals within a year and more than half within two years of diagnosis. As the neurons stop working, ingestion and respiration become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them remain living. Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed? The exact cause has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND. Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that professional footballers have an elevated chance of developing MND. A 2022 study by the Glasgow University including 400 ex- Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of developing the condition. Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have suffered repeated head injuries have biological differences that could render them more prone to developing MND. The MND Association acknowledges there is a "link" between contact sports and MND. It noted that while the athletes studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not prove the sports directly caused the disease. The organization also emphasises 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 grouping due to statistical coincidence". Several high-profile sports figures have been identified with the disease in recent years. These include former rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers. Across the Atlantic, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.