Makayla Joseph 02/11/2014

Gravity Hurts Summary

Everyone knows that there is no gravity in space, but do you know all the side effects that zero gravity has on your body?
Gravity is a signal that tells the body how to function. Gravity controls the amount of blood in your body, your blood pressure and how strong the muscles and bones must be. What happens is, since you dont have gravity pulling down on you anymore your muscles and bones get a huge break. When you dont use your muscles you lose them, at a rate of 5% a week! Bone mass is lost at a rate of 1% per month, and models suggest that the total loss could reach 40 to 60%. Sometimes astronauts faces swell and their legs get thinner. This is because when on Earth your blood is pulled down to your feet. In zero gravity the blood balances out causing the body to expel blood because of the higher blood pressure. Having less blood means the heart doesnt work as hard to pump blood to the different parts of your body. This weakens the heart and will cause major complications when returning to Earth. When astronauts return from a long time in space they need to be carried away by stretchers. After the astronauts are back on Earth, it takes some time for their bodies to recover. Blood volume is restored in a few days, while muscle can take up to a month. Although bone recovery can take up to 3 years and in some cases it doesnt come back at all. We normally say that it takes a day of recovery on earth for each day that somebodys in space. The most important thing is to make sure that you exercise to gain back all that is lost in space.

Effective & Not Effective: The article gave a lot information about the issue.

It tells us specific information such as how much is lost and how long it takes to recover. However it had some words that were hard to understand.

How does this article relate to health careers?

The article relates to health careers because it is directly about the human body. It tells us about the physical damage it does to the human body being in zero gravity. Having heart problems can result from a weakened muscle of the heart. We can make their connections because we have learned about the human body in shop.