🔗 Share this article

Motor neurone disease affects nerve cells located in the brain and spine, that instruct your muscle tissue how to function.

This leads them to weaken and become rigid gradually and usually affects your walking, speak, eat and breathe.

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

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

Approximately five thousand adults in the UK will have the condition at any one time.

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

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

Typically there is a hereditary background of the disease in these cases.

What are the Early Symptoms of the Condition?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

Not all individuals has the same symptoms, or experiences them in the same order.

The disease can progress at varying rates too.

Some of the most frequent indicators are:

• loss of muscle strength and cramps
• rigid articulations
• problems with your speech
• issues with ingesting, consuming food and drinking
• weakened coughing

Is There a Treatment?

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

MND is not a single illness - it is really multiple that result in the demise of nerve cells.

A new drug known as tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in some cases even reverse - a portion of the symptoms of MND.

It has been described as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of hope" for the entire condition.

Even though the drug has recently received approval in the European Union, it is not yet available in the UK.

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

Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the condition and prolong life by several months, but it does not reverse harm.

What is Survival Rate for MND?

Some people can live for many years with MND, including renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and survived until 76.

But for the majority, the illness progresses quickly and survival time is just a few years.

Based on the charity MND Association, the disease kills a one-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 numerous individuals need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them remain living.

Do Sports Professionals More Likely to Receive a Diagnosis?

The exact cause 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 increased risk of contracting MND.

Research from 2022 by the Glasgow University including four hundred ex- Scotland rugby union players concluded they had an increased risk of acquiring the disease.

Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have suffered repeated head injuries have physiological variations that may make them more susceptible to contracting MND.

The MND Association acknowledges there is a "correlation" between collision sports and MND.

It added that while the sportspeople researched were more likely to acquire MND, it did not prove the sports directly led to the condition.

The organization also stresses that "reported MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so determining there is a definite increased risk could be misunderstood if this is merely a grouping due to statistical coincidence".

Multiple high-profile sports figures have been identified with the condition in the past few years.

These include former rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricket athletes.

Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig died from the disease aged 39.