Space travel is known to be notoriously rough on the human body, but new research has revealed just how hard it hits red blood cells.
When we’re on Earth, our bodies create and destroy 2 million of these cells per second. In space, astronauts experienced 3 million red blood cells destroyed per second, resulting in a loss of 54% more cells than people on Earth experience, according to a new study.
Lower red blood cell counts in astronauts is known as space anemia.
“Space anemia has consistently been reported when astronauts returned to Earth since the first space missions, but we didn’t know why,” said study author Dr. Guy Trudel, a rehabilitation physician and researcher at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa, in a statement.
Researchers took breath and blood samples from 14 astronauts before their six-month stays on the International Space Station. The astronauts also took samples four times during their flights. The researchers also collected blood from the astronauts up to a year after their spaceflight.
The flights of the 11 men and three women occurred between 2015 and 2020. The findings were published Friday in the journal Nature Medicine.
