URI researcher working to ease health consequences for astronauts in space
Nutrition professor Marie Mortreux’s work, partly funded by NASA, could help inform long-term space flight planning When it comes to maintaining muscular and skeletal Health in the body, it’s either use or lose it. Maintaining mechanical load on muscular and skeletal systems is critical to prevent muscle atrophy and bone loss throughout the body. In daily life on Earth, ordinary movements help maintain the mechanical load needed for muscles and bones to remain strong. But in space , the lack of gravity can wreak havoc on muscular, skeletal and metabolic systems, subjecting astronauts to significant bone and muscle weakness to the point they can’t stand immediately upon return. The loss of muscle also affects their ability to process glucose in the body, which is exacerbated by altered light patterns in space that affect the body’s natural circadian rhythm. In addition to muscle and bone weakness, astronauts returning to Earth often face pre-diabetic symptoms that...