Human health in space…despite all the excitement, can we really survive and thrive on a different planet? We often think about the technology needed to get us to the Moon, Mars and beyond, but what about our health? Both the moon and Mars are totally different environments than Earth, so what are the anticipated health issues? What sort of health issues do astronauts experience in space?

In a recent episode of my Causes or Cures podcast, I chat with Dr. Thais Russomano about human health in space. Dr. Russomano will discuss changes that occur to the human body when in space, health concerns and differences between living on Mars vs living on the Moon, how medicines might behave differently in space, diagnostic tools needed in space, long-term health surveillance, and how clinical trials “in” space could be conducted. Finally, she will discuss her thoughts on if humans could truly live on Mars one day and how that would happen from a health perspective. This is a fun, exciting topic so I hope some of you click here to listen to the podcast. One thing I forgot to ask her is if healthcare in space would be more affordable than it is here. Well, at least in the US. Maybe concerns about human health in space would become a non-issue, because space has universal healthcare. I jest, i jest…sort of. But it is true that the health of a population depends on the affordability of healthcare.

Who is Dr. Russomano?

She is an internationally recognized expert on space medicine. She is a medical doctor and a doctor (Phd) of space physiology. She’s worked as a space scientist at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Germany and founded the Microgravity Center, an international reference center to study human space physiology, which she headed for years. She’s been a professor of space physiology at King’s College in London and a visiting professor at several other universities in different countries. She’s written numerous publications on space-related health issues, and she is co founder and director of InnovaSpace. You can read more about her and her work here.

Tune in, subscribe, share, tell me  your thoughts…and when you are finished listening to this episode, consider some of the others that are posted, such as:

At-home Ketamine for anxiety and depression

How many daily steps should we take to reduce our risk of disease and early death? ( I liked this one, because I always wondered if there was a point of diminishing returns…)

Thanks for reading and/or listening to the podcast! I appreciate your support.

See you on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and will write here soon.

Eeks