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Motor neurone disease affects nerves found in the brain and spinal cord, that instruct your muscle tissue what to do.

This leads them to weaken and stiffen gradually and typically impacts how you walk, talk, eat and respire.

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

A person's lifetime risk of developing MND is one in 300.

About 5,000 people in the UK will have the condition at any given moment.

Researchers are uncertain what causes MND, but it is likely to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your mother and father when you are born, and other environmental influences.

In as many as 10% of individuals with MND, specific genes are far more significant.

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

What are the Early Symptoms of the Condition?

MND impacts each person uniquely.

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

The condition can progress at different speeds too.

Among the most frequent indicators are:

• loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
• stiff joints
• difficulties in your speech
• complications involving ingesting, eating and taking fluids
• weakened coughing

Is There a Cure?

No definitive treatment, but there is optimism stemming from treatments focused on various types of MND.

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

A new drug known as tofersen is effective in only one in 50 patients, however it has been demonstrated to slow - and in certain instances even reverse - some of the symptoms of MND.

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

Even though the drug has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.

Just one drug presently approved for the management of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.

Riluzole may slow down the progression of the condition and increase survival by several months, but it cannot repair harm.

Determining Survival Rate for MND?

Some people can survive for decades with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the age of 22 and lived to 76.

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

Based on the non-profit MND Association, the condition kills a third of people within a twelve months and more than half within 24 months of identification.

As the neurons stop working, swallowing and breathing become more challenging and many people need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.

Do Sports Professionals At Greater Risk to Receive a Diagnosis?

The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople appear overrepresented by MND.

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

A 2022 study by the Glasgow University including four hundred former Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the condition.

Researchers additionally discovered that rugby athletes who have experienced multiple concussions have biological differences that could render them more prone to contracting MND.

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

It noted that while the sportspeople studied were had a greater chance to acquire MND, it did not prove the athletic activities directly led to the disease.

The organization also stresses that "reported MND instances in these studies is remains quite small, and so concluding there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is simply a grouping due to statistical coincidence".

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

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

In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.