Space Medicine

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How do astronauts keep safe and healthy during long trips through the solar system? That was a question many of us were asking ourselves as we watched the Space X Falcon 9 launch on May 30th, 2020. This is the Dragon´s second mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; onboard the Dragon spacecraft were astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

If you think about travel in general and how you feel once you get on a plane and travel from the east coast to the west coast, you begin to realize how difficult it must be to be in a space shuttle for an extended period. On a plane or driving for a long time, your muscles ache, you might suffer mild dehydration, your hands cramp, and your back hurts. Now imagine you are traveling through space. Not only will you experience the challenges you face during travel on earth, but you will also experience, low gravity, radiation exposure, and muscle cramping. Without any countermeasures, you could suffer muscle loss, weakening of the bones, gene mutation, to mention a few side effects.

The most prominent challenges astronauts have as they travel through space are staying fit and healthy physically and psychologically. The director of Space and Life Sciences at the Johnson Space Center, Dave Williams, stated that muscle atrophy and bone loss are the best-known alterations caused by space travel. However, there are many more, such as loss of blood volume, balance, proprioceptive, weakened immune system, radiation exposure, and slower wound healing.

Williams has stated that the best-known countermeasure recommended by space doctors is exercise, but there are several more. In the international space station, astronauts workout at least two hours a day. They utilize exercise bikes, treadmills, and a unique device developed for astronauts to accomplish strength training. Some medications help with bone loss, bisphosphonates. For radiation exposure, hydrogen works as a countermeasure. Frank Cucinotta, astronaut radiation health office and manager for Space Radiation Health Research at Johnson Space Center, states a shield cannot be made out of pure hydrogen, however, materials with high hydrogen content like polyethylene work well. The challenge with this is that it only blocks 30-35% of radiation. Medication is necessary to prevent radiation damage. Antioxidants help in absorbing radiation produced particles before they do harm. NASA scientists are also looking at ways to help the body once the damage is done by studying the cell division cycle. When cells divide, they stop to see to check the genes and detect errors. With pharmaceuticals that can lengthen the cycle, it can be possible for cells to identify if any kind of damage has been done, and it can then destroy or repair itself.

Even with these countermeasures in place, there is another component of health in space, that is the treatment of disease. During long missions, a medical problem could come up. If this occurs, and even if a medically prepared astronaut was part of the mission, there is a possibility they would have to treat themselves for any illness or accident that might happen with tools and medications they bring on the mission. Space doctors have the medical technology to perform small surgeries, diagnose, and treat illness. Some solutions that currently exist are robots with smart medical systems and telemedicine. The latter has become very popular during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jim Logan, who is the Johnson Space Center’s manager for the Medical Informatics and Health Care Systems, states that an external defibrillator is an excellent example of a smart medical system. The defibrillator can decide where it has been set up correctly and whether a patient needs to be defibrillated.

Space health is the next frontier as we see a recharged interest in exploration. The upcoming years will be crucial in developing new ways to stay healthy in space, so missions can be longer and safer.

Cartoon image of Florence Nightingale holding her lantern

Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Nurses’ Week prior to May 12th?

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The reason for this is Florence Nightingale, widely considered the most famous nurse in history. Her birthday was on May 12, 1820. Ms. Nightingale was born at the Villa Colombaia, in Florence, Tuscany, Italy into a wealthy British family and was named after the city where she was born. At a young age, Ms. Nightingale experienced what she believed were calls from God. In February 1837, while visiting Embley Park, Florence Nightingale felt a strong desire to devote her life to serving others. As a young woman, she was respectful of her family’s opposition to her working as a nurse. It was in 1844 she decided to enter the field, despite her mother’s anger in her defiance against the anticipated role for a woman of her status. Florence Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the science of nursing, and in 1847 while in Rome, she met Sidney Herbert. Mr. Herbert was a politician who had been Secretary of War (1845-1846). He and Nightingale became lifelong friends and he would be Secretary of War during the Crimean War. Herbert and his wife would be instrumental in facilitating Florence’s work in the Crimea War. Nightingale’s fame came during this war. It became her central focus when she received reports in Britain about the horrific conditions of the wounded. On October 21, 1854, she and a group of 38 women nurses, she trained, volunteered to sail to Balaklava in the Crimea, where the British camp was based.

Florence Nightingale is known as “The Lady with the Lamp,” this is due to her evening patient rounds. Ms.Nightinglage was appalled by the conditions of the soldiers in the front lines, and her work during the war helped her reform the National British Health System.
Ms. Nightingale pioneered the use of statistics in nursing and in bettering sanitary practices in healthcare. In addition to Florence’s work in public health promotion, she wrote “Notes on Nursing,” in 1859. To this day, this book is utilized as a classic introduction to the field of nursing. The Nightingale School for Nurses, which opened in 1860, is credited as the first training program for nurses. The school is now called the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London.
Another Nightingale legacy is the “Nightingale Pledge.” This traditional pledge was named after her in 1893 and it is still taken by some new nurses to this day.

“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession and will hold in confidence all my personal matters committed to my keeping an all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling.”

Florence Nightingale’s unwavering compassion is one of the reasons she is known as the founder of modern nursing. She died peacefully on August 13, 1910.

Every year, National Nurses Week begins on May 6th and ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. May 8th, 1998, was designated National Student Nurses Day These dates represent an opportunity to recognize new nurses and those who have and are working in the field.

Every year nurses play a key role in the lives of patients, families, and communities. However, this year Nurses Week has a new significance.
Nurses play an indispensable function in the lives of patients and their families, healthcare colleagues, and the community in general. This year National Nurses Week (May 6 – 12) takes on new significance as the entire healthcare community is working on the front line of Coronavirus pandemic. Nurses are putting others’ needs first as they are compassionately providing care while working under remarkable circumstances. They inspire us by performing heroic acts daily. We all owe nurses and their healthcare colleagues a heartfelt thanks with deep gratitude.

Please join Healthcare Igniter in thanking and celebrating the extraordinary nurses and other health care professionals for working so diligently and for putting others before themselves. That, after all, is the definition of a true hero.