http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/2017-05/spaceflight5917.html
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have decreased physical fitness because of a decrease in the way oxygen moves through the body, according to a Kansas State University kinesiology study.
Carl Ade, assistant professor of exercise physiology, and collaborators partnered with the Johnson Space Center to find that astronauts' exercise capacity decreases between 30 and 50 percent in long-duration spaceflight because the heart and small blood vessels are not as effective at transporting oxygen to the working muscle.
"It is a dramatic decrease," Ade said. "When your cardiovascular function decreases, your aerobic exercise capacity goes down. You can't perform physically challenging activities anymore. While earlier studies suggest that this happens because of changes in heart function, our data suggests that there are some things happening at the level of the heart, but also at the level of the microcirculation within capillaries."
Space: Not Even Once.
Decreases in maximal oxygen uptake following long-duration spaceflight: Role of convective and diffusive O2 transport mechanisms (open, DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00280.2016) (DX)
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday May 12 2017, @02:23PM (1 child)
I have not read the paper, nor am I a medical doctor, but I would assume they can grow new blood vessels just like the rest of us, the process is called Angiogenesis. So I would assume when they are back at normal gravity and not floating about on ISS and start to exercise they will eventually grow new blood vessels -- or the old impaired once just start working again or get fixed.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday May 12 2017, @02:31PM
Sounds good. This will however surely have implications for any Mars trip. 6 months? in zero gravity and then 1/3 gravity on the surface for years. While they will need to walk, use wrenches, lift, build, farm etc..