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Motor neurone disease impacts nerves located in the cerebrum and spinal cord, that instruct your muscles how to function.

This leads them to lose strength and stiffen over time and usually affects your walking, speak, eat and respire.

This is a relatively rare condition that is most common in people above age fifty, but grown-ups of any age can be affected.

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

Approximately five thousand adults in the UK are living with the condition at any one time.

Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is likely to be a combination of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you inherit from your mother and father when you are born, and additional lifestyle factors.

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

There is usually a hereditary background of the illness in these cases.

Identifying the First Signs of the Disease?

MND affects everyone differently.

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

The disease can advance at different speeds too.

Among the most frequent signs are:

• loss of muscle strength and muscle spasms
• stiff joints
• difficulties in how you speak
• complications involving swallowing, eating and drinking
• weakened coughing

Is There a Treatment?

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

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

An innovative medication known as tofersen is effective in only one in 50 patients, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in some cases even reverse - some of the symptoms of MND.

It has been described as "truly remarkable" and a "real moment of optimism" for the entire condition.

Even though the drug has recently been approved 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 advancement of the disease and prolong life by several months, but it does not reverse harm.

Determining Life Expectancy for MND?

Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, such as renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed 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.

According to the charity MND Association, the condition kills a one-third of individuals within a year and over 50% within two years of diagnosis.

As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and breathing become increasingly difficult and many people need feeding tubes or breathing apparatus to help them stay alive.

Are Athletes 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 professional footballers have an elevated chance of contracting MND.

A 2022 study by the University of Glasgow involving four hundred ex- Scotland rugby union players determined they had an increased risk of developing the disease.

Researchers also found that rugby players who have experienced multiple concussions have biological differences that may make them more prone to contracting MND.

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

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

The organization also emphasises that "reported MND instances in these studies is remains quite small, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misinterpreted if this is simply a cluster due to random chance".

Several high-profile sports figures have been identified with the disease in the past few years.

This encompasses former rugby players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.

In the United States, baseball player Lou Gehrig succumbed to the disease aged 39.