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Would you like to spend 70 days in bed? Nasa pays $ 18,000 for total idleness

The study of the results of long bed rest is aimed at studying the effect of long-term space travel on bones and muscles.
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This is the astronaut Mike Fink, participating in the third of four spacewalks, made during the six-month ninth expedition to the ISS.

If you usually get out of bed with difficulty, then NASA has a job for you.
NASA recruits volunteers to lie in bed, tilted down 6 degrees for 70 days. Participants who complete the project can receive up to $ 18,000.
The study aims to study the conditions in which astronauts fall. Nasa hopes to find out what physical changes are taking place with scientists participating in her space missions and how much this affects the ability to perform certain tasks. The information will be used to create methods to help astronauts to more successfully adapt to daily activities in space.
Since there is no gravity in space, astronauts do not strain muscles properly, which is bad for their shape.
During the study, participants are required to be at a small angle, which allows the fluid to move toward the upper body. This should allow to investigate cardiovascular symptoms similar to those experienced by astronauts during expeditions.

Volunteers will be divided into 2 groups. Some will be at the NASA Research Center for 105 days and will perform a range of physical exercises simultaneously with the observance of bed rest. The second group will spend 97 days at the facility and will not do the exercises.
Information about the condition of the bones, muscles, heart, cardiovascular system, nervous system, as well as nutritional conditions and the state of the immune system will be continuously recorded.
When participants need to take a shower or go to the toilet, they will use NASA-modified devices that you do not need to stand up to use.
Both groups will be able to spend a few days of normal, moving life in a research center. In addition, after the end of the 70 days of the study, 2 weeks of rehabilitation are envisaged, during which participants return to normal life.
NASA will pay $ 1,200 per week, which can last up to 15 weeks.
Still interesting? Participants must be fit, non-smokers and appropriate to the third class of physical fitness of the US Air Force.
“We do not need couch potatoes for this study,” says Roni Cromwell, senior researcher.

Some health risk

It is clear that the project is accompanied by a health risk. Dr. Adam Stein, chairman of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, New York, told CBSNews that he usually observes muscle loss, bone density and lung volume in patients who have been in a long time bed rest.
There is also the likelihood of problems with the excretory system.
“I think that after 70 days there may be changes that cannot be eliminated immediately,” he said, adding that healthy people must ultimately come to their original state.
Fixed people have a predisposition for skin problems, such as pressure sores. But Stein, as an independent expert, said that since the volunteers will be in good shape and without health problems, the risk of these problems occurring is minimal.
He is most worried about psychological problems that may arise in the process of inaction. People may begin to feel anxious while in bed for so long.
“I studied a number of similar studies and thought that a person must be crazy to go for it,” said Stein. "The psychological side of this study worries me perhaps even more than the physical."
Cromwell told Forbes magazine that: “not every personality type is suitable for a 70-day study.”
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Path to salvation

"Research participants should look at this as an opportunity to help astronauts maintain their health in space," explains Cromwell.
Heather Archuleta, a NASA volunteer who participated in a similar research program in 2008, told Forbes that just lying on a bed is not as easy as it sounds.

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The horizontal simulator makes it possible to perform regular exercises lying down, without violating the conditions of bed rest.

“Even when it became very difficult, I remembered that I did it for astronauts, helping to keep them healthy during the research,” she said. “On the day when I got up after 54 days in bed, my legs ached as if I had an accident. But I reminded myself that this is what all astronauts have to go through. By participating in ground-based studies, you also experience some of the experience that astronauts experience there, in space. ”

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/194602/


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