New Cancer Therapy and Antibiotics? What Medicine Can Learn from Space Travel - How Space Warps the Human Body and Advances Earth's Medicine

Space poses serious challenges for the human body. Microgravity alters how fluids and other biological processes work, creating unusual health risks for astronauts. Daniela Bezdan, a former member of the ESA’s astronaut selection team, highlights how these effects can also teach doctors on Earth. On the International Space Station, astronauts experience strange physical changes. Fluids shift in microgravity, causing their heads to swell while their legs grow thinner. The heart still pumps blood as if gravity were present, but the lack of it sends more fluid upward, increasing pressure in the head. This can damage their eyes over time.

Space is inherently hostile to humans. Cosmic radiation in orbit raises the risk of cancer. Other issues like bone loss and infections also appear more frequently in astronauts. Bezdan points out that studying these problems in space helps improve medical knowledge on Earth. Research from spaceflight offers insights into cancer, bone loss, and infections. Doctors can use this information to better understand and treat similar conditions on Earth. The findings also underline the extreme conditions astronauts endure beyond our planet.