🔗 Share this article

Motor neurone disease affects nerves located in the brain and spinal cord, which tell your muscles how to function.

This causes them to lose strength and stiffen gradually and usually affects your walking, speak, eat and respire.

It is a quite uncommon condition that is most frequent in individuals over 50, but adults of all ages can be impacted.

A person's chance in their life of developing MND is 1 out of 300.

About five thousand people in the UK are living with the condition at any given moment.

Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genes - or biological traits - you inherit from your parents when you are delivered, and additional environmental influences.

For up to 10% of people with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.

There is usually a family history of the illness in such instances.

Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Condition?

MND affects everyone differently.

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

The condition can progress at different speeds too.

Among the most common signs are:

• muscle weakness and cramps
• stiff joints
• difficulties in your speech
• issues with swallowing, eating and drinking
• weakened coughing

Does There Exist a Cure?

No definitive treatment, but there is hope stemming from treatments targeted at different forms of MND.

MND is not one disease - it is actually several that result in the death of nerve cells.

A new drug known as tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been shown to slow - and in certain instances even reverse - a portion of the manifestations of MND.

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

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

Just one drug presently approved for the management 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 does not reverse damage.

Determining Survival Rate for MND?

Certain individuals can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed at the age of 22 and survived until 76.

But for the majority, the disease progresses quickly and life expectancy is only several years.

Based on the charity MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a one-third of individuals within a year and over 50% within 24 months of diagnosis.

As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and respiration become more challenging and many people need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.

Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Be Diagnosed?

The precise reason has not been identified, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.

Two studies from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an increased risk of contracting MND.

A 2022 study by the Glasgow University involving 400 former Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of acquiring the condition.

Scientists additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have experienced multiple concussions have physiological variations that may make them more prone to contracting 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 acquire MND, it did not show the sports directly caused the condition.

The charity also emphasises that "documented MND cases in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is merely a cluster due to random chance".

Multiple prominent athletes have been diagnosed with the condition in the past few years.

This encompasses former rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.

In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease at the age of 39.