According to recent research, headaches are more likely to occur in astronauts during space missions. This study included 24 astronauts from space agencies in the US, Europe and Japan, who spent up to 26 weeks on the International Space Station (ISS). The majority, 24 of them, reported experiencing headaches during their stay.
The pain persisted not only in the first weeks in space, when the body goes through the process of adapting to microgravity, but also later. “We hypothesize that different mechanisms are involved in early headache cases — within a week or two in space — compared to cases that occurred later,” said neurologist Willebrordus PJ Van Oosterhout.
Microgravity and its implications
The main challenge when astronauts arrive in space is adapting to the lack of gravity, known as space adaptation syndrome. It can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness and headaches. Later headaches, in contrast, may be the result of an increase in intracranial pressure.
Due to microgravity, there is more fluid building up in the upper body and head, causing greater pressure on the skull. “The headaches experienced are often throbbing and pulsing that last 4 to 7 hours, unlike tension-type headaches that are felt throughout the head without these other symptoms,” said Van Oosterhout.
Astronauts and their missions
The astronauts involved in the research were aboard the ISS for missions that took place from November 2011 to June 2018. Of them, 22 reported 378 episodes of headache during a total of 3,596 days in orbit. None of the 24 reported headaches in the three months after returning to Earth. It is worth mentioning that none of these astronauts had been diagnosed with migraines prior to their mission.
Impacts of space travel on astronauts
In addition to headache, documented effects of space travel include bone and muscle atrophy, changes in the brain, cardiovascular system and immune system, problems with the balance system in the inner ear and a syndrome involving the eyes. The risk of cancer from increased radiation exposure in space is another concern.
Experts are still unsure how big a problem these effects could pose for long-term human space travel, such as journeys to Mars. “We don’t know the effects of long-duration — possibly years — space travel on the human body,” Van Oosterhout said.
2024-03-17 14:35:27
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