Space Station study to help your heart on Earth

William Atkins
Friday, 10 July 2009 19:04

Science - Health

And, NASA continues to say, “Because the Earth pulls the ISS towards it and is traveling 7,900 meters per second (26,000 feet per second) parallel to the Earth's surface, the ISS moves around the Earth in a circle. The force of gravity on both the astronauts in the ISS and the ISS itself is about nine-tenths of what it is at the Earth's surface.”

With the conclusion, “Why do you think NASA astronauts in the ISS feel weightless? You only feel weight when something pushes against you. The ISS can't push the astronauts because both the ISS and the NASA astronauts free-fall at the same rate. (They are traveling at the same speed and in the same direction.)”

Addititional information on the Integrated Cardiovascular study is found on the NASA International Space Station website, "Cardiac Atrophy and Diastolic Dysfunction During and After Long Duration Spaceflight: Functional Consequences for Orthostatic Intolerance, Exercise Capability and Risk for Cardiac Arrhythmias (Integrated_Cardiovascular)."

It states benefits from both "Space Applications" and "Earth Applications."

Space Applications

"Once the magnitude, time course, and inciting factors for cardiac atrophy have been determined, effective countermeasures currently being developed by the investigators in parallel ground-based experiments may be applied, focused on normalizing cardiac work and volume during long-duration space flight. Upon completion of these experiments, a number of important risks for long-duration space flight, such as cardiac function and arrhythmia risk may either be deemed manageable by current preventive measures, or clearly defined for future countermeasure research."

Earth Applications

"The information obtained from these space flight experiments may be relevant for patients after prolonged confinement to bedrest, or chronic reduction in physical activity, as well as for patients with disease processes that alter cardiac stiffness such as congestive heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and normal ageing."