Posted on 01/14/2022 7:44:19 PM PST by BenLurkin
A world-first study has revealed how space travel can cause lower red blood cell counts, known as space anemia. Analysis of 14 astronauts showed their bodies destroyed 54 percent more red blood cells in space than they normally would on Earth, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.
Before this study, space anemia was thought to be a quick adaptation to fluids shifting into the astronaut's upper body when they first arrived in space. Astronauts lose 10 percent of the liquid in their blood vessels this way. It was thought astronauts rapidly destroyed 10 percent of their red blood cells to restore the balance, and that red blood cell control was back to normal after 10 days in space.
Instead, Dr. Trudel's team found that the red blood cell destruction was a primary effect of being in space, not just caused by fluid shifts. They demonstrated this by directly measuring red blood cell destruction in 14 astronauts during their six-month space missions.
In this study, five out of 13 astronauts were clinically anemic when they landed—one of the 14 astronauts did not have blood drawn on landing. The researchers saw that space-related anemia was reversible, with red blood cells levels progressively returning to normal three to four months after returning to Earth.
Interestingly, the team repeated the same measurements one year after astronauts returned to Earth, and found that red blood cell destruction was still 30 percent above preflight levels. These results suggest that structural changes may have happened to the astronaut while they were in space that changed red blood cell control for up to a year after long-duration space missions.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Send Biden to space.
You'd have a space mutiny.
Kinda suggests we’re not supposed to leave this planet.
Sounds like an interesting study. We know about possible radiation danger and the effects of weightlessness on muscles, now this. I wonder what the fix, if any, is going to be?
It might take a little longer to plan a trip to Mars.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
2001: A Space Odyssey, among others..
Send robot surrogates to Mars. Would make an interesting movie.
The good thing about the smell in space is that nobody can smell your shit. It is in your space suit. Diapers don’t work the same.
Kinda suggests we’re not supposed to leave this planet.
—
Kinda suggests we need to spin our space vehicles to create centrifugal force, a form of artificial gravity.
Being in space destroys more red blood cells
Which, apart from the context, could be a headline to one of the sensational tabloids. What alien being is engaging in this?
Doing the arithmetic, we find that a person who weighs 150 pounds on Earth will weigh 133 pounds on the space station...So how do we understand what we see with our own eyes? The astronauts definitely look like they are weightless. Or are the conspiracy theory crew right after all and it’s all a fake? No, definitely not. Believe it or not, the explanation is that both the space station and the astronauts are literally falling. If you stopped the space station in its orbit or, if it was just lifted straight up 400 kilometers right after it was originally built, it would fall straight back to Earth -- More https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/gravity-on-space-stations-and-free-fall/
Hemolysis contributes to anemia during long-duration space flight
As Spock would say, fascinating...
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