NASA has done a lot of research on what happens to the human body in space, and here are some of the things they’ve learned:
1) Microgravity alters where your blood likes to hang out—on Earth, blood travels down and it’s our bodies’ job to pump it back up, but there isn’t really a “down” in space! Because of this, there’s more blood hanging out in an astronaut’s head, and this can cause changes in vision, along with feelings of dizziness, motion sickness, or even syncope (fainting). Astronauts also experience a decrease in blood volume, exacerbating these symptoms.
2) Because they don’t have to support their own weight in microgravity—or anything else, for that matter—astronauts lose muscle mass pretty quickly! They also lose bone density super fast—which are just a couple reasons why astronauts spend about two hours a day working out. 💪
3) Astronauts also experience cardiovascular changes, because their hearts don’t have to work as hard to circulate blood. Exercise is very important for them. 🏃🏻♀️
4) Living in the International Space Station means astronauts only see the same few people for months—they’re super isolated, and they have to learn to deal with the psychological effects of that isolation.
5) After astronauts return to Earth, they may experience a change in cognitive function. Astronaut Scott Kelly spent a year aboard the International Space Station, and once he returned, researchers documented that his cognitive speed and accuracy declined.
Life in space creates a lot of symptoms in the human body—and POTS patients experience many of these same symptoms! ...but for totally different reasons, of course. 😅
I’m hopeful that more research on how the human body reacts to space—and how to help reduce the changes astronauts face during spaceflight—will help POTSies here on Earth!
But I also wonder if learning about POTS—what causes it, and how to effectively treat it—might benefit astronauts in space. 🤔 If we have such a wide overlap in symptoms, maybe there’s a way we can learn from each other...
Just a thought, NASA. 😉