Astronaut's space flights have been causing "Space Anemia" for some of them once they have returned to Earth.
(L-R) Christina Birch, Luke Delaney and astronauts candidates pose with family and friends at the NASA's 2021 Astronaut Candidate announcement event on December 6, 2021 at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. - NASA announced its 10 latest trainee astronauts, who include a firefighter turned Harvard professor, a former member of the national cycle team, and a pilot who led the first-ever all-woman F-22 formation in combat. The 2021 class was whittled down from a field of more than 12,000 applicants and will now report for duty in January at the Johnson Space Center in Texas, where they will undergo two years of training.
A recent study looked into the reason why some of the returning astronauts are experiencing messed-up blood after they have traveled outside of Earth.
Astronauts' Space Flights Likely to Cause 'Space Anemia'
As per the report Local12, a study from the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital examined a total of 14 astronauts who have recently been to space.
A recent study showed that leaving Earth and going to space could wreak havoc to the body of humans by destroying their red blood cells more than their normal rate.
According to the news story by CNN, it has been common knowledge for some by now that traveling to space could damage the human body in various ways.
However, this time around, the recent study specifically realized that flying to space is ruining the red blood cells count of a person.
To be more precise, the new study explained that human bodies on Earth normally kill about 2 million red blood cells in just a second.
On the other hand, our bodies are destroying more of these cells when in space, which is at about 3 million red blood cells killed for each second.
In turn, the study showed that astronauts on space missions are losing an alarming 54% more red blood cells than the folks here on Earth.
As such, when astronauts have already returned from their space missions, there have been numerous cases of "space anemia."
The recent study also revealed that the rapid rate of red blood cell destruction continues throughout the space mission. It comes as human bodies attempt to compensate for the lack of liquid in their blood vessels while in space.
Read Also: SpaceX's Falcon 9 to Launch Human Muscle Cells into Space to Uncover the Secrets of Aging
Space Anemia Study
The author of the study, Dr. Guy Trudel, said that "space anemia has consistently been reported when astronauts returned to Earth since the first space mission."
However, the study author, who is also a rehabilitation physician, pointed out that "we didn't know why."
That said, the researchers decided to study the reason behind the phenomenon of "space anemia" among astronauts returning to their home planet.
The study further took multiple blood samples from a total of 14 astronauts before and after their space mission in the International Space Station.
The researchers got blood samples from the participating astronauts before their six-month mission in the space station. On top of that, they also took samples while they were outside of Earth.
Aside from that, the researchers also collected samples from the blood of astronauts a year after their mission from the ISS.
Related Article: SpaceX Falcon 9 First 2022 Launch Sends Starlink Internet Satellites to Orbit
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Teejay Boris
