Spine Issues Faced By NASA Astronauts

NASA revealed that a serious health issue has been encountered by astronauts and Mars

colonizers who travel to MARS. It is observed that the astronauts grow taller during their long

term space flight around the red planet. Though this is an undue advantage to some of the shorty

Joes who can’t gain height on planet earth, it is also a huge disadvantage as they come with back

pain and injuries.

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Months on the space travel can lead to the spine to shrink and no matter how much an

astronaut tries; he can’t get back to normal for several weeks on end.

To test this, researchers from the University of California assessed six astronauts who had

gone to the International Space Station for four to seven months and found out that the cross

sectional area of the muscles that run along the spine and support the spine thus preventing

misalignment, was decreased by 19 % . Over the recovery of a month or two, only two-thirds of

this reduction was recovered.

The results under the influence of microgravity showed that astronauts do not depend on

spinal muscles to stabilize and support the body in any way as they float weightlessly in space

which in turn get prone to atrophy that causes the bones in the spine to straighten and stiffen.

Researchers used to attribute astronaut's back pain to the swelling of the spinal discs

when the back is not compressed by the weight of the body, but MRI scans of the astronauts did

not show evidence of this.

"These findings run counter to the current scientific thinking about the effects of

microgravity on disc swelling," as quoted by one of the researcher.

Finally, the researchers and findings have suggested to the astronauts for a lifestyle

change in their routines in order to keep themselves healthy. They have to perform core-

strengthening exercises and neck rotation exercises in order to keep them selves healthy.

This problem needs to be treated at the earliest as NASA plans to send a manned mission

to planet MARS in the future after the study of presence of water on the planet.

Original Source: https://goo.gl/NllgCT