Dr. William (Bill) Rowe, Sunday, 6-10-12 June 11, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: all female HSF crew, anthropology, artificial gravity 1 G, beta blockers in space, blood vessel issues in microgravity, body heat in space, bone loss, calcium-magnesium ratio, cardiac issues in space medicine, Chinese taikonaut female crew selection criteria, David Scott, Dr. William (Bill) Rowe, G-I issues in space medicine, iron in space medicine, James Irwin, magnesium loss in space, muscle atrophy in microgravity, oxidative stress, partial gravity, space exercise protocols, space medicine, subcutaneous RX delivery in space., The Bushmen of the Kalahari
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Dr. William (Bill) Rowe, Sunday, 6-10-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1792-BWB-2012-06-10.mp3
Guest: Dr. William (Bill) Rowe. Topics: Space medicine, magnesium, calcium & astronaut heart problems, oxidative stress & exercise protocols in space. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back Dr. Bill Rowe to further discuss certain aspects of human spaceflight (HSF) and space medicine. Please note that all Space Show programs are educational programs. This particular interview with Dr. Rowe is no exception. As an educational program, Dr. Rowe, at the end of the interview, offered to respond to your serious comments & questions posted on the blog and said you could email him through his website, www.femsinspace.com. Unlike most space medicine discussions, Dr. Rowe goes into lots of details on several key issues. I have no doubt that some of you will reject, challenge, and not like what you hear. Some of you will take issue with Dr. Rowe & be critical of this program. You might even see him as being negative though that is not the case, but he is definitely scientific. I urge you to discuss disagreements, challenges, & issues with him. Civility is the only requirement. During our first hour of this nearly 2.5 hour discussion, Dr. Rowe started out by going over astronaut cardiac issues, referring to former astronauts Jim Irwin & Dave Scott on Apollo 15 pertaining to issues with Irwin’s hear rate. The articles he mentions on his website are in the upper left hand corner of the home page. Dr. Rowe then segmented into the first of many magnesium discussions & oxidative stress, using his submarine analog, (www.femsinspace.com/Oxidative_stress.htm. Microgravity exercise routines were discussed along with the need to get rid of excessive body heat. Dr. Rowe had much to say about the inadequacy of current on orbit exercise routines & heat. He also talked about plasma leakage, the loss of magnesium, & what this does in space. Also in this segment, he went over the Chinese Taikonaut requirements for female crew members, making the case for an all female crew. Don’t miss what he had to say about this. Our last topic in this segment was 1G and artificial gravity.
In our second longer segment, Dr. Rowe talked about recent studies pertaining to calcium usage & he brought this home to HSF. We talked about the importance of the calcium-magnesium ratio. Caller John introduced us to the issue of Vit. D3 & calcium. Tim called to make some good points about artificial gravity in terms of needed data points. He did not agree with the all female crew suggestion. Next, Dr. Rowe talked about the gastrointestinal lining, iron, & bone issues in space. Dr. Rowe also referred to anthropological studies to see how some groups habits might positively impact skeletal muscle issues in space. Issues with high adrenalin levels were discussed throughout the program along with possible treatment/intervention tools. At the end, we learned that resolving these complex issues is not just a matter of more money. I also asked Dr. Rowe about private Mars missions & one way trips with private crews ignoring space medicine factors. He called them dreamers but in the end if they want to go knowing the risks, they should be able to go. Dr. Rowe said his research & comments were focused on scientific HSF missions, not the dreamer type missions we often hear & read about in the media.
Post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. You can email Dr. Rowe through his website.
Drs. Adrian LeBlanc, Thomas Lang & John Jurist, Sunday, 5-6-12 May 6, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: artificial gravity, bed rest studies, bisphosphonates, bone density, bone mass, calcium excretion in microgravity, cancer, cosmic radiation, CT scans, DEXA bone scan, Dr. Adrian LeBlanc, Dr. John Jurist, Dr. Joyce Keyak, Dr. Thomas Lang, government regulations for HSF, hip fractures, HSF policy, ISS, long duration spaceflight bone loss issues, Mars gravity., microgravity bone loss, microgravity exercise protocols, NASA, new drug development, osteonecrosis, osteoporosis, partial gravity, private HSF to Mars, Quantitative computed tomography (QCT), renal stones in space, space effects on astronauts as they age, space research for terrestrial benefits, spontaneous fractures
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Drs. Adrian LeBlanc, Thomas Lang & John Jurist, Sunday, 5-6-12
NASA Bone Loss & Bisphosphonate Study
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1769-BWB-2012-05-06.mp3
Guests: CLASSROOM: Dr. Adrian LeBlanc, Dr. Tom Lang, Dr. John Jurist. Topics: Bone loss issues for human spaceflight & the use of bisphosphonates for mitigation. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com and The Space Show Classroom blog, http://spaceshowclassroom.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. In addition, at the end of this summary, you will find links to relevant papers for our discussion as provided us by Dr. Lang. We welcomed Dr. Adrian LeBlanc, Dr. Tom Lang and Dr. John Jurist as co-host to discuss the NASA bisphosphonate and bone loss study in progress. Dr. LeBlanc along with his associate in Japan, Dr. Toshio Matsumoto, are leading this study and Dr. Lang is part of the team. We started our discussion with Dr. LeBlanc providing us with a brief historical overview of bone loss issues of concern to NASA since the early days of the space program. We talked about Skylab, Mir, the use of the DEXA scan, the use of quantitative computer tomography (QTC) and CT scans through to the ISS, Space Shuttle, and current research projects. Our discussion was technical at times so if you need to look up or Google a technical term, please do so. In addition, we had some audio issues with the phone line used by Dr. LeBlanc as he faded in and out from time to time. We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused. The first segment went through the bone loss issues, problems, consequences, & the methodologies involved in analyzing the conditions encountered by the astronauts participating in these studies. Issues we discussed included the use of prescription drugs in space, long term use of bisphosphonates, risk factors for spontaneous hip fractures, exercise programs, bone strength, bone mass, the impact of radiation, skeletal recovery back on Earth after spaceflight to something different than before the spaceflight took place as well as the implications for astronauts as they age. We talked about using artificial gravity to mitigate bone loss. You might be surprised to learn that using partial gravity may not help matters. Bisphosphonates do seem to help and will possibly play a role with exercise as we move to long duration spaceflight but we are in the very early stages of fact finding on these issues. We also discussed informed consent with the astronauts regarding their participation in these and other experiments.
In the second segment, a listener asked about the relevance of this type of space research to the taxpayer who funds it and to the general population. Our three guests responded to this question, explaining why the research is relevant and important. Don’t miss their answers. We then talked about following the astronauts here on Earth to see the continued impact of having been in space on their bones as they age. We learned that bone changes after being in space for four weeks or more and it is important to follow these changes as part of the aging process. Our guests talked about calcium excretion issues in space and the risk this causes for a renal stones. Bisphosphonates may inhibit calcium excretion which would help mitigate this risk. Near the end of our discussion, we learned about new medications being developed that are more advanced than the bisphosphonates we have today. We also talked about the competition with astronauts for different scientific experiments. As Dr. Jurist pointed out, we really do need lots more human spaceflight! At the end a listener asked about bed rest studies and our guests provided us with the basics. If you are interested, visit https://bedreststudy.jsc.nasa.gov. Our guests made important closing comments and take away points.
Please post comments/questions on The Space Show and Classroom blogs.
Dr. Lang provided us with these links that will be of interest to us all. These documents can be accessed without a subscription to the journals. These papers provide some background to the problem of bone loss in spaceflight, the recovery of bone after spaceflight and use of CT and the use of CT-based finite element modeling to assess bone loss.
Cortical and Trabecular Bone Mineral Loss From the Spine and Hip in Long-Duration Spaceflight http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1359/JBMR.040307/full
Adaptation of the Proximal Femur to Skeletal Reloading After Long-Duration Spaceflight http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1359/jbmr.060509/full
Reduction in proximal femoral strength due to long-duration spaceflight http://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=0zFSO9sAAAAJ&cstart=20&citation_for_view=0zFSO9sAAAAJ:4DMP91E08xMC
Click on link on right “[PDF] from http://cof.org.cn ” for free pdf copy of the report.
