SPACE causes the human body to destroy its own red blood cells and scientists don’t know why.
The strange phenomenon is called space anemia and new research suggests it plagues astronauts even when they return home.
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A new study published in Nature Medicine found that space causes the human body to destroy red blood cells at a faster rate than on Earth.
The medical term for the destruction of red blood cells is hemolysis.
Researchers still aren’t sure why space makes hemolysis occur at a quicker rate but the new study has made some progress on the subject.
The study notes: “As humankind plans extraterrestrial travel, understanding the health implications of living in space will be critical to planning safe journeys.”
The researchers worked with 14 astronauts over a period of six months.
All of the astronauts were on missions at the International Space Station.
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For the study, the astronauts breathed into canisters every so often and brought all the cans back to Earth.
Researchers on Earth then checked the astronauts’ breath for carbon monoxide.
It’s thought carbon monoxide is produced each time a red blood cell is destroyed in the body.
The results showed that astronauts were destroying around three million red blood cells every second.
That’s 54% higher than the average rate here on Earth.
Five out of the 13 astronauts who had blood drawn when they landed back on Earth were still anemic.
After a year, their red blood cell destruction was still found to be higher than in people who hadn’t been to space.
According to the study, the longer a person stays in space, the longer they will be anemic on land.
The researchers suspect bone marrow or the spleen could be to blame and plan to investigate these areas further.
They also want to conduct a longer experiment to see what’s happening to an astronaut’s blood after a year-long mission.
The findings could help space agencies decide mission lengths as well as how injuries or illnesses should be treated in space.
Red blood cells are very important for things like maintaining energy levels and healing wounds.
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