Spending Time in Space Could Make Astronauts Heart Age Faster

As space agencies worldwide pursue missions into deep space or settlements on the Moon and Mars, a major challenge emerges. We still don't completely understand what extended bouts in space do to the human body. Among those changes, it turns out that the heart can grow weaker, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal NPJ Microgravity.

Life of astronauts in zero gravity takes less physical exertion. The heart becomes stress deconditioned and less tolerant to exercise in the future.

‘Human spaceflight decreases exercise tolerance and ages astronauts' hearts.’

According to the study, astronauts who spend a long enough in zero-gravity for their hearts to adjust and decondition may end up with the exercise tolerance of someone who never exercised at all and lived a sedentary lifestyle. It's a surprising change, given the physical rigor of the tests astronauts have to go through before spaceflight.

"Present findings are helpful to design future long-term spaceflights, initiate optimal countermeasures and understand the astronauts state of health," says the lead author Stefania Scarsoglio in a press release.

This study serves as a warning that physical conditioning should remain part of a space traveler's routine, even when living in zero gravity. And on top of that, they recommend that studying the ways that space deteriorates heart health could lead to new insights into cardiac wellbeing back on Earth.

Source: Medindia