According to a recent study, astronauts who stay in space for longer than three months may experience severe bone loss that lasts longer than a year and is irreversible.
Scientific Reports published a study titled “Incomplete recovery of bone strength and trabecular microarchitecture at the distal tibia 1 year after return from long-duration spaceflight.”
In a microgravity environment, astronauts’ bones do not have to support any weight.
The report’s opening sentence read, “The damaging effects of spaceflight on skeletal tissue can be profound.”
While it was known previously that zero gravity causes bone damage, the new study shows that longer spaceflights can result in damage that is hard to recover till up to a full year.
The lead author of the study, Leigh Gabel, assistant professor in Kinesiology, told Eureka Alert that the “weight-bearing bones only partially recovered in most astronauts one year after spaceflight.”
“This suggests permanent bone loss due to spaceflight is about the same as a decade worth of age-related bone loss on Earth,” the study said.
The new study demonstrates that longer spaceflights can result in damage that is difficult to recover from for up to a full year, despite the fact that bone damage in zero gravity has long been known to occur.
According to Eureka Alert’s interview with Leigh Gabel, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of kinesiology, “weight-bearing bones only partially recovered in most astronauts one year after spaceflight.”
According to the study, “this suggests permanent bone loss due to spaceflight is roughly equal to a decade’s worth of age-related bone loss on Earth.”
17 astronauts were examined both before and after spaceflights as part of a 2017 study to determine how bones respond to extended spaceflights.
