News & Events
Study explores link between football and Motor Neurone Disease
19 March 2007
A study reports on three amateur football players from the same league who developed Motor Neurone Disease (MND) simultaneously.
The authors discuss the possible factors that may have contributed to the three men developing MND, of which playing football may have been an aspect. The study concludes that, “these friends shared so many other putative risk factors in common, that we must be cautious before attributing their simultaneous Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) to soccer alone.”
ALS is the most common form of MND. The study is due to be published in the medical journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Talking about the study, joint author Dr Ammar Al-Chalabi, King's College London said: “We still do not know why some people develop MND and everyone has their own theory. What is unusual about this group is that they are all friends who developed MND at the same time. In any year two people in 100,000 will develop MND so a cluster like this could occur by chance, but the odds are quite long.”
Researchers have suggested that the risk of developing MND is likely to involve a combination of a wide variety of genetic and environmental risk factors, perhaps occurring years before the onset of symptoms.
Dr Brian Dickie, Director of Research at the MND Association said: “Almost 140 years after the disease was first characterised, we still do not understand the cause of over 95 per cent of cases. Understanding the cause is the first step along the path to developing effective treatments and perhaps even preventing the disease from occurring. We are working closely with researchers such as Dr Al-Chalabi in trying to unpick the various factors that predispose people to this devastating disease.”
Currently MND is an under funded disease. More research needs to be carried out to determine the causes of MND and to contribute to the eventual eradication of a cruel and fatal disease that kills more than 1600 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland annually.
The authors discuss the possible factors that may have contributed to the three men developing MND, of which playing football may have been an aspect. The study concludes that, “these friends shared so many other putative risk factors in common, that we must be cautious before attributing their simultaneous Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) to soccer alone.”
ALS is the most common form of MND. The study is due to be published in the medical journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Talking about the study, joint author Dr Ammar Al-Chalabi, King's College London said: “We still do not know why some people develop MND and everyone has their own theory. What is unusual about this group is that they are all friends who developed MND at the same time. In any year two people in 100,000 will develop MND so a cluster like this could occur by chance, but the odds are quite long.”
Researchers have suggested that the risk of developing MND is likely to involve a combination of a wide variety of genetic and environmental risk factors, perhaps occurring years before the onset of symptoms.
Dr Brian Dickie, Director of Research at the MND Association said: “Almost 140 years after the disease was first characterised, we still do not understand the cause of over 95 per cent of cases. Understanding the cause is the first step along the path to developing effective treatments and perhaps even preventing the disease from occurring. We are working closely with researchers such as Dr Al-Chalabi in trying to unpick the various factors that predispose people to this devastating disease.”
Currently MND is an under funded disease. More research needs to be carried out to determine the causes of MND and to contribute to the eventual eradication of a cruel and fatal disease that kills more than 1600 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland annually.
