Astronauts face health risks—even on short trips in space

In-depth studies include first health data collected from space tourists

NASA and other space agencies have studied the health of hundreds of astronauts over the past 6 decades, finding a wide range of impacts, including elevated long-term cancer risks from exposure to space radiation, muscle atrophy and bone loss from life in microgravity, and changes in vision. But private spaceflights are giving researchers the chance to study the risks in more detail, with the latest biomedical technologies. “A good 30% to 40% of [the SOMA assays] are new,” Mason says.

One message from the SOMA studies, Mason says, is that the same health effects that professional astronauts experience over their long expeditions turn up among space tourists who only spend a few days in orbit.

One study confirms NASA’s research on the Kelly twins, showing how space stressed the Inspiration4 crew’s immune cells, affecting the chromatin, or chromosome material, in a type of white blood cell called monocytes. Mason says the immune system is “on high alert, aggravated.” The researchers also sequenced RNA in astronauts’ blood, finding that the stress of spaceflight affected the transcription of immune system genes, possibly reducing the body’s ability to defend against viruses.

The studies suggest men and women face different risks in space and recover at different rates after returning to Earth, says Tejaswini Mishra, a geneticist at Stanford University who previously worked on NASA’s twins study.

Women’s vision appears to be less affected by microgravity, and their monocytes returned to normal more quickly than men’s. But women space travelers appear to be more vulnerable to some cardiovascular and cancer risks. There’s still not much data available for women astronauts, though, Mishra says, and those sex differences need further study.

LINK

 

A perspective on the evidence for glymphatic obstruction in spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome and fatigue (2024, Nature npj Microgravity)

Single-cell multi-ome and immune profiles of the Inspiration4 crew reveal conserved, cell-type, and sex-specific responses to spaceflight (2024, Nature Communications)

Space radiation damage rescued by inhibition of key spaceflight associated miRNAs (2024, Nature Communications)

Astronaut omics and the impact of space on the human body at scale (2024, Nature Communications)

Spatiotemporal expression and control of haemoglobin in space (2024, Nature Communications)

Cosmic kidney disease: an integrated pan-omic, physiological and morphological study into spaceflight-induced renal dysfunction (2024, Nature Communications)

Single-cell analysis identifies conserved features of immune dysfunction in simulated microgravity and spaceflight (2024, Nature Communications)

Release of CD36-associated cell-free mitochondrial DNA and RNA as a hallmark of space environment response (2024, Nature Communications)

Direct RNA sequencing of astronaut blood reveals spaceflight-associated m6A increases and hematopoietic transcriptional responses (2024, Nature Communications)

Aging and putative frailty biomarkers are altered by spaceflight (2024, Nature Scientific Reports)

Spatial multi-omics of human skin reveals KRAS and inflammatory responses to spaceflight (2024, Nature Communications)

Spaceflight induces changes in gene expression profiles linked to insulin and estrogen (2024, Nature Communications Biology)

 

I need the better, medical, minds to come over and see all @SNT Gatchaman has posted about astronauts.

Comparing astronauts to ME/CFS/LC. There's so much similarity. It's almost shocking!! I'll name a few.

altered glucose and lipid metabolism

slow to fast muscle changes

impaired T cell and NK cell response

increased activity of latent viruses

mitochondrial ATP lowered

and so on, and so on

My mashed potato brain can only point out. HELP is urgently needed.

 

Maybe the mouse models would be more accurate if they chucked the mice into space for a couple months.

Instead of their usual: exhausting/infecting the mice = ME/LC.

 

They did chuck them into space and tested them and the astronauts.

 

Sorry I meant to say in relation to mouse models typically used in ME/CFS research.

 

Some previous posts —

See in particular the thread for Comprehensive Multi-omics Analysis Reveals Mitochondrial Stress as a Central Biological Hub for Spaceflight Impact (2020, Cell) and the paper is open access.

 

How does a low blood volume influence lab results?


This question has been bothering me for over 15 years.

I asked the Clinical Chemists, they gave me the example of a glass and a pitcher of lemonade. In both you find syrup and water in the same quantities.

Yeah. But I spilled an unknown portion of lemonade while pooring it into the glass. It is still syrup and water, but not enough of it.

Clinical Chemists say it's all there, all the syrup and water you need. I say no it is not, I'm still thirsty.

What's wrong in my reasoning here?

 

Thanks for the reminders. Would have taken me months to find.

"Where no one has gone before", fat chance, Gatchaman saw it first.

Imagine arriving at Mars as an astronaut with my brain.
They'd better figure it out before they go out there.
And in doing so helping all of us too!

 

The only connection I can find between ME/CFS and spacetravel is shock and change in body fluids( only one sentence) Fluids are going up in space, down on earth, both seem to result in a lowered blood volume.
That's why astronauts can get better in a few weeks after returning to earth. Rehydration and gravity changes the DNA-alterations back to normal.
Shock as in fever, but also as an elastic band that snaps when stretched too long. (mold, chemicals).

I'm not an E.T. (extra terrestrial) just a T. an earthling with both feet on the ground. How can I be shocked back to normal?

Maybe ME/CFS/LC researchers can connect with space researchers to take research a giant leap further?