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MND affects nerves located in the cerebrum and spine, which tell your muscle tissue how to function.

This causes them to weaken and stiffen gradually and usually affects your walking, speak, consume food and breathe.

This is a relatively rare condition that is most common in people above age fifty, but adults of all ages can be affected.

An individual's lifetime risk of contracting MND is 1 out of 300.

Approximately five thousand people in the UK are living with the disease 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 mother and father when you are born, and other lifestyle factors.

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

Typically there is a family history of the illness in such instances.

Identifying the Early Symptoms of the Condition?

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 frequent indicators are:

• muscle weakness and cramps
• rigid articulations
• difficulties in your speech
• issues with ingesting, consuming food and drinking
• reduced cough reflex

Is There a Cure?

No definitive treatment, but there is optimism coming from treatments focused on different forms of MND.

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

An innovative medication known as tofersen works in just 2% of patients, however it has been shown to slow - and in some cases even reverse - a portion of the manifestations of MND.

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

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

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

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

What is Life Expectancy for MND?

Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and survived until 76.

But for the majority, the disease advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.

Based on the non-profit MND Association, the disease kills a third of people within a year and over 50% within 24 months of identification.

As the neurons stop working, ingestion and breathing become increasingly difficult and numerous individuals need nutritional support or breathing apparatus to help them remain living.

Are Athletes At Greater Risk to Be Diagnosed?

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

A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 indicated that soccer players have an increased risk of contracting MND.

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

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

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

It noted that while the sportspeople studied were more likely to acquire MND, it did not show the athletic activities directly caused the disease.

The organization also emphasises that "documented MND cases in this research 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".

Several high-profile sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in recent years.

These include ex- rugby internationals, soccer players, and cricketers.

Across the Atlantic, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.