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Is there a citation for the following claim? I've never heard of such a thing: "But then more results started coming back. Not only do astronauts come back wit

Is there a citation for the following claim? I've never heard of such a thing: "But then more results started coming back. Not only do astronauts come back with weak muscles and frail bones… But they also suffer from skin thinning, atherosclerosis (stiffer arteries), resistance to insulin and they suffer from loss of vision due to cataracts many years earlier than expected given their chronological age. These symptoms look a lot like skin aging, cardiovascular aging, age-related diabetes and so forth. In fact, it is pretty accurate to say that astronauts age at an accelerated rate."

kbenson 11y ago
There's a slew of references ("further reading") listed at the bottom, some of them look like they are the source of at least some of these claims.
danesparza 11y ago
In addition to the references in the article, Wikipedia (surprisingly) has a nice article on the effects of spaceflight on the human body (with all sorts of references): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_human_body https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_h...
- taconacho 11y ago
  Looks like my mistake was in thinking that the stated effects were occurring after astronauts had returned to Earth. At least that's what the title sounds like. If these symptoms only apply to humans while they are in a weightless environment then it sounds very much like sedentary disease (aka sitting disease). Even rigorous exercise routines can't fully match the effects of gravity on the human body.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
They're not aging at an accelerated rate, they're exhibiting similar symptoms of aging from their microgravity environment (weak muscles, frail bones) and from there being no shielding from cosmic rays (cataracts).
- bdamm 11y ago
  Perhaps we could conclude that cosmic rays cause increased rate of aging. Actually, it seems pretty obvious really, that a body healing itself from radiation damage would "age" more quickly. Doesn't every cell division increase the cost of further cell divisions through mutations? And isn't there actually a mechanism to ultimately shut down cell division i.e. Telomere breakdown?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - CydeWeys 11y ago
    The linked article does a good job of refuting this hypothesis. There are radiation workers on Earth who receive regular, higher doses than what astronauts receive, and are not subject to these effects. It really is the weightlessness doing it, not the slightly higher ambient radiation.
    - dbrannan 11y ago
      Would we live longer if gravity was higher than 9.81 m/s2? I think it might be difficult to actually test this, but it is a fun question.
      - Goronmon 11y ago
        I would assume that stronger gravity would just come along with a different set of health issues (joint and muscle problems dealing with more stress, heart would be affected having to work harder to pump blood, etc).
      - vinceguidry 11y ago
        If you take any complex system out of the environment it evolved to survive in, it won't work as well. Doesn't matter which knob you tweak, it won't be the environment it evolved in. There will just be a different set of failures.

kbenson 11y ago

There's a slew of references ("further reading") listed at the bottom, some of them look like they are the source of at least some of these claims.

danesparza 11y ago

In addition to the references in the article, Wikipedia (surprisingly) has a nice article on the effects of spaceflight on the human body (with all sorts of references): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_human_body https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_h...

taconacho 11y ago
Looks like my mistake was in thinking that the stated effects were occurring after astronauts had returned to Earth. At least that's what the title sounds like. If these symptoms only apply to humans while they are in a weightless environment then it sounds very much like sedentary disease (aka sitting disease). Even rigorous exercise routines can't fully match the effects of gravity on the human body.

toomuchtodo 11y ago

They're not aging at an accelerated rate, they're exhibiting similar symptoms of aging from their microgravity environment (weak muscles, frail bones) and from there being no shielding from cosmic rays (cataracts).

bdamm 11y ago
Perhaps we could conclude that cosmic rays cause increased rate of aging. Actually, it seems pretty obvious really, that a body healing itself from radiation damage would "age" more quickly. Doesn't every cell division increase the cost of further cell divisions through mutations? And isn't there actually a mechanism to ultimately shut down cell division i.e. Telomere breakdown?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- CydeWeys 11y ago
  The linked article does a good job of refuting this hypothesis. There are radiation workers on Earth who receive regular, higher doses than what astronauts receive, and are not subject to these effects. It really is the weightlessness doing it, not the slightly higher ambient radiation.
  - dbrannan 11y ago
    Would we live longer if gravity was higher than 9.81 m/s2? I think it might be difficult to actually test this, but it is a fun question.
    - Goronmon 11y ago
      I would assume that stronger gravity would just come along with a different set of health issues (joint and muscle problems dealing with more stress, heart would be affected having to work harder to pump blood, etc).
    - vinceguidry 11y ago
      If you take any complex system out of the environment it evolved to survive in, it won't work as well. Doesn't matter which knob you tweak, it won't be the environment it evolved in. There will just be a different set of failures.