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WEBMD MAGAZINE NOV/DEC 2017 | WEBMD.COM BY Lauren Paige Kennedy LIVING REVIEWED BY Neha Pathak, MD WebMD Medical Editor

CUTTING EDGE Final Frontier Facts Safe Space Can we really send humans to Mars and back in the near future? Very likely, experts say. But how would such a journey impact the health of long-term space travelers?

Enter Carl A. Olsson of Advanced Urology urine loss, as well as through calcium IS THERE A GENDER DIVIDE? Centers of New York and Michael Leapman, leakage from the bones into the urine. “To boldly go where no man has gone MD, assistant professor in the Department “Astronauts become significantly before” goes the famous Star Trek refrain. Memo to Captain Kirk: NASA’s latest The Gravity of the Situation of Urology at the Yale School of Medicine. dehydrated with losses of 2% to 3% of A trip to Mars would involve Their studies incorporate ongoing research the entire body’s water,” says Olsson. Such class of astronauts is 50% female. two years of weightlessness, collected from the International Space fluid loss may trigger a range of renal When it comes to gender difference, which can affect space Station and focus on gender differences in problems, including kidney stones. “There don’t seem to be that many,” travelers’ bone density and osteoporosis and fertility, as well as issues of Olsson says. Bone density changes occur cause dehydration. the genitourinary tract (which includes the OVERRIDING MICROGRAVITY in both men and women at the same rates. reproductive organs and the urinary system) Left untreated, kidney stones can be “Women may have different baselines, but DO ASTRONAUTS DO CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS GO during prolonged missions in space. painful and life-threatening. “That’s why no worsening in space than men do.” HAVE SPECIAL NUTRITIONAL HAYWIRE IN urologists are involved,” Leapman says. “For decades there was a sexist attitude: NEEDS? SPACE? GRAVITY MATTERS “We can walk [an astronaut] through Can women tolerate the stresses of space? In space, The answer is Humans have already survived prolonged an emergency situation in space when We have female astronauts approaching astronauts’ blood still pending. space flights. Record holder Russian cosmo- kidneys are blocked. NASA is developing their seventh decades, still flying and volume contracts, Currently, NASA is naut Valeri Polyakov logged an uninterrupted “contingency plans so astronauts doing well, and women in space who then resulting in excess investigating the 483 days in space back in 1995, and American can perform ultrasounds, downlink had children, or who’ve gone to space after iron, which can body’s biological cause bone loss, clock, the roughly astronaut Scott Kelly claimed the second- to medical personnel on Earth, and having children,” says Olsson. according to 24-hour cycle longest stay at 340 days in 2016. theoretically perform an emergency Similar to Polyakov and Kelly, women NASA. So iron affecting sleeping According to Olsson, a mission to Mars procedure on themselves,” he adds. astronauts show no long-term health or levels are carefully and feeding would likely take, “at minimum, two years,” Bone density loss also contributes fertility effects once they’ve returned to monitored. patterns, and how including time spent for data collection on to osteoporosis, a condition where Earth. Leapman says research shows it changes during the planet’s surface as well as the round- the bones become brittle and fragile, that once the known physiological long-duration missions. trip flight. That’s twice the length of time which can lead to bone breaks. To challenges of the microgravity state are IS VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY AN any human being has thus far lived in maintain bone health as well as strong controlled for, both genders can thrive ISSUE? microgravity, or weightlessness, which cardiovascular systems, NASA crew among the stars. Astronauts in HOW ABOUT NASA defines not as zero gravity but as members exercise on average two hours But will a Mars mission really happen space can’t ab- INTERPLANETARY very weak gravity. each day. Olsson says astronauts use in our lifetime? sorb this essential PROCREATION? The mission’s duration matters because AREDs or advanced resistance exercise “It’s a lofty goal,” admits Leapman. “I nutrient from “For truly pro- longed missions the human body reacts differently to micro- devices aboard NASA flights—the think it’s going to happen by the 2030s,” sunlight. NASA there is talk of gravity—which negatively impacts both skel- equivalent of lifting weights in space. predicts Olsson, citing the Space X pro- studies humans working in Antarc- colonization. etal and renal health—than it does to Earth’s As for dehydration, NASA has devel- gram of entrepreneur Elon Musk, who tica who absorb Could we fertilize stronger gravitational pull. oped a specially formulated electrolyte “has done an amazing job catching up zero sunlight over an egg?” muses “During the earliest space missions of the concentrate called “The Right Stuff,” a to, and exceeding, the capacity of NASA long periods of Michael Leapman, 1960s scientists observed prompt changes daily staple of astronauts’ space diets. in very few years. It’s doable with people time to predict MD. “It has yet to in bone density and leakage of calcium into (Space fans here on Earth can order the like Musk on board, along with the entire how much supple- be demonstrated if that’s viable. There the urine. So skeletal health is a big concern,” hydrating drink online.) NASA effort.” mental vitamin D astronauts require are concerns Leapman explains. in space. about cosmic Olsson elaborates: “Earth’s gravity pulls radiation.” bodily fluid”—meaning blood, plasma, and FOR MOST OF US, THE NOTION OF SPACE TRAVEL TO MARS IS LIMITED TO A urine—“down into the direction of our feet, BY THE NUMBERS Saturday night viewing of The Martian, starring Matt Damon. But for or, when we’re lying down, toward the back. NASA and a team of researchers planning for such a mission, not only In microgravity more fluid goes to the brain more Some researchers speculate a single journey to Mars and is it possible, it’s probable. And perhaps relatively soon. and upper torso.” spherical 2 days Still, even if NASA can tackle the technological challenges of landing The result, he says, is that bodies in space 9.4 % back could expose a space 665 A recent study on 12 astronauts showed the heart / traveler to two-thirds of his or On April 24, 2017, astronaut Peggy Whitson broke a shuttle on the “red planet” some 40 million miles away from Earth and immediately react to protect the heart, brain, 3 becomes more spherical with less muscle mass after her safe lifetime limit for radia- the record for most cumulative (as opposed to then safely returning its crew home, important questions must be answered and eyesight from too much fluid, working prolonged exposure to microgravity, which could cause the limit tion exposure, thus increasing consecutive) days spent in space by any NASA

about potential health effects on astronauts before blastoff can happen. to readjust total blood volume mass through GETTY IMAGES GETTY IMAGES cardiac problems during a lengthy Mars mission. cancer and DNA damage risk. astronaut, male or female.

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