Hyderabad:

 Dr. Jimmy Prabhakar, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine and Diabetology, Rela Hospital Chennai believes that after landing on the earth, astronaut Sunita Williams and members of crew 9 could face problems in her muscles and bones, besides experiencing weight loss.

Sunita Williams and members of crew 9 are en route to Earth and are expected to land at 3.27 AM IST on March 19.

"The most commonly affected problem must be in the muscles and bone and joints. Muscles because once gravity is eliminated, they always tend to float in space. They may not use the gravity to hold firmly on the floor. So, there might be some sort of an atrophy of the muscles. Sarcopenia can come, muscle weakness, muscle atrophy and the bones may not be completely strengthened," he said.

Dr Jimmy Prabhakhar said, "The problems of having a prolonged stay in space where complete gravity is not there, and they are exposed to so much cosmic radiation and the stay has been there for more than 300-400 days. The following consequences can occur to the patients or astronauts who come back to the Earth after a prolonged stay in the space station."

"The bone may get totally demineralized, calcium might come out, thereby weakening the muscles and bones. Muscle atrophy, and weight loss will be there and when they come back because of the radiations and changes in the pressure, there might be some problems in the visual disturbances, which is very common because of fluid accumulation in the brain, particularly around the optic nerves and the cerebral edema that can cause some sort of visual disturbances," he added.

He further said, "So, we need to carefully observe when they come back to the earth and neurologically, they can get affected because of the prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation. Neurologically means the higher functions of the body, namely the orientation, the memory and the proprioception, everything. Modifications can predispose the individuals to some sort of malignancies that also we have to closely monitor when they come back to the earth."

Sunita Williams and the members of crew 9 will come back to Earth after spending 9 months in space.

On Tuesday, Sunita and Butch Wilmore bid farewell to the International Space Station (ISS)— their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside astronaut Nick Hague, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. They left for Earth after hatch closure and undocking from the ISS at around 10.35 AM (IST).

"To summarize, they can have problems in the muscles, problems in the bones, they can have a weight loss, they can have visual disturbances and exposure to radiation can cause neurological abnormalities, visual impairment, gastrointestinal manifestations like diarrhoea, the loss of protective bacteria inside the gastrointestinal tract, the skin manifestations like rashes and immune level will go up, low hemoglobin, low WBC count can come and there might be some alterations in the genes which can predispose the individuals to some sort of malignancies in future which they have to carefully monitor," he added.

Read More :

Having Dizzy Spells, Nausea, and Balance Issues? Here's How To Tell If It's Vertigo