Motor Neurone Disease and Regular Strenuous Exercise

Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a condition where the individual's nervous system loses the ability to control muscular contraction. People with MND progressively lose the ability to move their limbs, talk, eat and breathe. Around 5000 people, in the UK, suffer from this devastating condition. In around 10% of cases, MND is inherited. In the other 90%, it results from a genes-environment interaction. It has long been suspected, that regular strenuous exercise is a risk factor for people with a genetic predisposition for MND. For example, professional footballers have a risk of developing MND that is 6 times that seen in the general population. A group from Sheffield University analysed data from the UK Biobank Project. This project holds data on genetics and lifestyle for around half a million people (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/11/scientists-link-intense-exercise-with-mnd-risk-in-some-people-motor-neurone-disease). The Sheffield study confirmed the link between regular strenuous exercise (something intrinsic to all professional sports) and a genetic predisposition. Exercise changes the activity levels of many of the suspected genes. It would be useful to be able to warn people, they had a high risk of developing MND, if they elected to become professional sportspeople. This, of course, could shatter their dreams. Perhaps there will be possibilities in the future of changing the problematic genes?