Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The day is done. We're just getting started. The Last Show with David Cooper. Want to hop on a spaceship and head out there and orbit the moon? That's all fine and well, but you got to be in tip-top medical shape. You got to be in good health. And what happens if there's a health emergency in deep space?
Well, that is a question we are about to explore with Dr. Farhan Azrar, a Toronto-based physician and space medicine researcher.
Chapter 2: What is space medicine and why is it important?
Farhan, welcome to the show. Thank you. My pleasure. So tell me about space medicine. I have to admit, when we reached out to you, I'd never even realized that would be a field. How does it differ from just regular old medicine?
Well, it is like even growing up, like I've always been fascinated about space. And I think once I went into like medicine as well, even I was surprised to find out that someone can make a career out of this and really be professionally involved.
Space medicine as a whole is basically, it's just the health and caring of astronauts and humans in space so that they can adequately live and work in space.
Is it a particularly risky environment? I know for one, like your balance, you get vertigo, your head spins, your orientation of what's up and down can make you nauseous and throw up. Like, are there any like obvious concerns that people wouldn't consider that the second you step in that seat or step in that chair or sit in that chair and head off like it's now going to be a problem?
Well, space as a whole, I would say, is quite a disabling and challenging environment. The strain that it puts on our body, and literally every part of a system can be challenging, and even from space exploration as a whole. So right from the get-go, the launch perspective, the G-force you're getting, the strains of being launched into space is one challenge.
The microgravity or the lack of gravity that is in space, along with even radiation exposure and so many other factors, puts really a strain on all our systems. Like we know that it can affect, let's say your bone mass, people are losing anywhere between like anywhere from like 1.5 to even 2% of bone mass per month. They could even basically losing muscle mass
You also could be basically like we've been noticing fluid shifts are causing changes in our vision, causing increased risk of kidney stones, kidney issues as well. There were even an incident of an astronaut getting a blood clot in space as well. So literally, I could say that it's quite challenging from every perspective.
We do have countermeasures in place to address those, but it can be a really challenging environment.
Yeah, if I get a blood clot or a kidney stone, I head to the clinic. I call 911. Medical care is right then and there available to me in a hospital. If that happens in space, I imagine there's all kinds of contingency plans or plans if an emergency happens. But what are they?
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Chapter 3: What unique health risks do astronauts face in space?
Obviously, the plans have to be more specialized with every mission, but on a whole, the structure, the framework is always there. So it is looking at, can we basically... let's say, continue with the mission itself without causing any harms or challenges to the astronaut themselves. However, if there is a risk of we don't know what could happen, could they possibly worsen?
Or even from a medical side of view, we would say that, oh, there is a risk of something going wrong. That's when we would be like, we need to evacuate immediately. And it varies because even with the medical evacuation, if there was an immediate emergency, we could have brought that astronaut back in a matter of hours.
Interesting. With Artemis being the furthest that any manned spacecraft has ever been from Earth, I imagine it could take days or whatever to get someone back. This is kind of grim. You don't need to get too graphic. It's a bit dark. But if someone does die in space, is there a plan? What do they do in that case?
Well, there are actually all kinds of contingencies already that have been planned out, again, as a whole. And then when a mission does take place, they kind of look at the specifics of that mission itself. So in those plans, there are actually situations where how do you address with a medical emergency?
It's basically even looking at how do you address with, let's say, palliative care situations where there is basically something that could be significantly concerning, or if someone would be passing though as well, how do you kind of like let's say even address those situations. So those plans are always in those situations.
Like how do you like, again, not to go grim, but if terms of something happens to someone, how do you kind of address, help support the person or even basically handle, let's say the body itself and then kind of bringing them back though on earth. So again, All these things are already planned out from the simplest issue to the most grim or dire situation as well.
And it just kind of depends on that situation. The one thing that you did kind of mention was that, yes, by all means, Artemis 2 is going further than we have gone before. And this is really opening the gates to a whole new frontier, even in space medicine, where traditionally we have been very close to what we call low Earth orbit.
So even at the ISS, if there was an emergency situation, we could bring an individual back in a matter of hours if that was needed. However, when we're talking about the moon or even ideally when we are looking at Mars, it could take several, well, it could take
Even Mars, if we look at the appropriate time window for us to come back, it might even take like almost a three years window for somebody to come back. So in these cases, we know that a medical evacuation wouldn't be possible.
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