Calgary scientist’s research to help astronauts bolster their health

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A Mount Royal College biologist is partnering with NASA and the German House Company to conduct analysis that can assist astronauts keep their well being throughout extended house missions.

“NASA has the Artemis program, which has the purpose of placing astronauts again on the moon within the subsequent couple of years. And so, the problem is not if we will do it — it’s doing it safely for longer durations,” stated Nick Strzalkowaski, who holds a PhD in neurophysiology and a bachelor of science in human kinetics.

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Strzalkowaski is collaborating with major investigator Leah Bent of the College of Guelph and co-investigator Ryan Peters from the College of Calgary to review pores and skin sensitivity adjustments in individuals spending 60 days in head-down mattress relaxation to raised perceive sensory variations that happen throughout house flight. The undertaking is financially supported by the Canadian House Company.

“The purpose of the large undertaking that I’m concerned in is to analyze countermeasures to see if we will decelerate or mitigate the physiological variations within the house surroundings.”

The analysis will consist of 4 campaigns of 12 individuals, which is able to take a few years to finish; the primary spherical of testing will happen in September.

“What’s wonderful about this undertaking is that there are dozens of principal investigators doing dozens of various experiments due to how advanced and invasive the head-down mattress relaxation protocol is, so it’s actually cool to be a part of this actually huge workforce.”

Weightlessness can have severe impression on well being of astronauts

Being subjected to the consequences of microgravity is likely one of the first issues to occur when somebody goes to house. Microgravity causes blood and different fluid to shift upwards towards the top, inflicting puffiness within the face, placing stress on the eyes and the optic nerves, and inflicting imaginative and prescient impairments.

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“It additionally places stress on the cardiovascular system — your coronary heart doesn’t must work as onerous, so it shrinks and also you lose blood quantity. Floating out in house additionally means you’re not utilizing your muscle tissues, so you may have muscle atrophy or weakening, which may result in osteoporosis-like signs and kidney stones,” Strzalkowaski stated.

And whereas testing astronauts in house is dear, harmful, and difficult, conducting analysis on Earth to review physiological variations that happen is a a lot safer and less expensive possibility.

“That’s the place the head-down mattress relaxation is available in, and that simulates the fluid shifts as a result of their head is down at six levels and under their toes, and it’s unloading in order that they’re not utilizing their muscle tissues and their bones.”

The inspiration for the undertaking got here from work that Strzalkowaski and first investigator Bent did again in 2011 in one other NASA research adjustments in foot sole sensitivity in astronauts.

“The benefit of doing the head-down mattress relaxation research is that now we will check these individuals a number of occasions — so as an alternative of simply pre-post, we will take a look at them, for instance, on day three and day seven, and at two-week increments over the protocol to see how these adjustments happen over time.

“House analysis, even when the objectives are about house exploration, the findings and discoveries do make their manner again to Earth. So, it’s the whole lot from scratch-resistant lenses to synthetic limbs to air purification techniques, water purification techniques, and GPS — all that stuff began with an area software after which got here again to Earth,” Strzalkowski stated.

April 12 marks the Worldwide Day of Human House Flight.

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