A new study from Henry J. Donahue suggests that cosmic rays adversely affect bones, but not muscles. These findings are important for studying age-related changes in the human body.
Bone is a dynamic tissue. As external forces act, it changes to meet new conditions. But microgravity makes less demands than terrestrial gravity, so the body will not waste time on the formation of bones and maintaining the usual state.
NASA is preparing for long-term flights in space, so the astronauts will face a significant influence of the space environment. Donahue says there will be no use for large lead vests.
The scientist carefully studied the effects of cosmic radiation and microgravity on muscles and bones, suggesting that both categories will suffer losses. It turned out that the conditions of microgravity led to the expected results, but the radiation did not. The fusion of both components leads to a negative effect on the bone, but does not affect the loss of muscle mass. This information is extremely important not only for space missions, but also in terrestrial conditions. With age, people face similar problems. Moreover, the development of medicine has increased the life expectancy of people, making this problem common (older people more often break bones)
Donahue says he is going to concentrate on bioinformatics to study any genetic changes caused by microgravity or the effects of radiation on bones and muscles.
