A doctor has raised concerns about the health of one of NASA’s stranded astronauts after a recent photo showed her looking ‘gaunt.’
Sunita Williams, 59, has spent 152 days in space after Boeing’s faulty Starliner space craft left her stuck on the International Space Station.
Williams and her fellow astronaut Barry Wilmor docked on June 6 on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission but have been there since.
While the two have put on a positive front in their public comments and interviews, a recent photo tells a different story, according to Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and veteran in Seattle.
Dr Gupta told DailyMail.com: ‘What you’re seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.
‘Her cheeks appear a bit sunken – and usually it happens when you’ve had sort of total body weight loss,’ Dr Gupta added.
‘I think what I can discern by her face and her cheeks being sunken in is that [she] has probably been at a significant [calorie] deficit for a while.’
The body burns more calories in space as it adjusts to the changes in gravity and tries to maintain its body temperature in cold, harsh conditions – and to prevent muscle and bone loss, astronauts exercise about 2.5 hours a day, which burns more calories.
It comes just days after an entire NASA crew was hospitalized without explanation after spending more than 200 days on the ISS.
PICTURE OF HEALTH: Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmor before their mission on June 6
WEARING ON HER: A doctor has raised concerns about Sunita’s health, claiming this September 24 showed her looking ‘gaunt’
In the photo, which was published on September 24, Williams can be seen tucking into a pepperoni pizza and chips while surrounded by condiments and other treats.
‘Based on what I’m at least seeing in the photo, I don’t think she’s quite at a… place where I say her life’s in danger,’ Dr Gupta said.
‘But I don’t think you can look at that photo and say she has sort of healthy body weight.
‘There’s just things that the human body cannot adjust to, and one of which is, you know, she’s probably losing more calories than she’s intaking.’
Astronauts are encouraged to consume up to 3,500 calories per day while in space to prevent the body from breaking down.
But Dr Gupta said: ‘Your metabolism [in space] fundamentally requires you to burn way more energy than you’re intaking, even if you’re intaking pepperoni slices.
‘Her body’s probably working harder to do basic things, because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than it would be on sea level.
The crew tuck into high-calorie foods to combat the harsh muscle-wasting effects of being in space
‘They’re intaking very high calorie foods, as you can tell – cold cuts, and, you know, other meats, the proteins, but high-fat cold cuts – it’s not necessarily a balanced diet.’
The problem of the body breaking down is a particular worry for women.
A study assembled by NASA in 2014 found that women have greater loss of blood plasma volume than men during spaceflight, and women’s stress response characteristically includes a heart rate increase while men respond with an increase in vascular resistance.
The loss of blood plasma causes your metabolic rate to temporarily increase while your body mobilizes resources to adjust to the loss of plasma.
And this response can slightly elevate your calorie burn, resulting in weight loss similar to what Williams may be experiencing.
Another study released by Ball University in 2023 also found that women lose more muscle than men in a microgravity environment such as spaceflight.
Researchers explored muscle loss (atrophy) in men and women during two extended bed rest trials.
The men spent 90 days and the women spent 60 days in a six-degree head-down tilt position, where their head is below their feet.
This simulated a weightless condition similar to what crewmembers experience during spaceflight.
Both volunteer groups ate, slept, performed personal hygiene and all other activities in either the head-down tilt or a horizontal position.
The team found that all participants lost a significant amount of muscle mass in both areas of the leg throughout their bed rest period compared to before bed rest.
The women lost more muscle from the quadriceps at one month compared to the men, and the women lost more muscle mass at two months than the men lost at three months.
‘The amount of oxygen in the air is lower than it is at baseline, their nutritional intake is not going to be as robust as can be on the ground,’ said Dr Gupta.
‘Their ability to work out is going to be limited. So every every sort of physiologic variable that defines our well being is going to be suboptimal, especially even in a pressurized cabin, but in, you know, in outer space in their case, right?
‘So what you’re seeing there in that picture, especially with Sunita, is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.’
He continued to explain that even thought Williams has had the necessary training to spend time on the ISS, there are ‘just things that the human body cannot adjust to.
‘Her metabolism is probably from the roof, to keep warm, to operate in an environment that, again, even though it’s pressurized, her body’s probably working harder to do basic things, because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than it would be on sea level,’ Dr Gupta added.
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