US scientists have identified a new health risk among astronauts in what they say is the first study to assess the effects of cosmic radiation and weightlessness on men’s sexual health.
Now they demand that you carefully monitor how astronauts are affected and feel after they have been out in space, reports The Guardian.
Can be for several decades
Since it was not possible to subject humans to their experiments, the Nasa-funded researchers chose to use rats that they suspended in harnesses in the air, which they then exposed to simulated galactic cosmic rays.
On Earth, people are protected from cosmic radiation thanks to the planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere. But on the moon and on Mars there is no effective barrier. On board the space station ISS, there is some protection, but the astronauts are exposed to the same amount of radiation in a week as a person on Earth is in a year.
When the researchers then analyzed how the rats were affected, they could see that even low levels of galactic cosmic radiation increased a kind of stress in the animals’ bodies, affecting the arteries that supply the genitals with blood. This in turn led to erectile problems among the rats.
Weightlessness also risked affecting the organs, but not to the same degree.
In addition, they found that the problems could be long-lasting and that astronauts could theoretically be at risk of suffering the effects for decades.
“These findings suggest that the neurovascular function of the erectile tissues may deteriorate during the remainder of the astronauts’ sexually active lifespan after returning to Earth from long-duration space exploration,” the authors write in their study.
May be reversible
A positive aspect of their study was that the researchers also found that the erectile problems could be treated. By using specific antioxidants, tissue function seemed to improve.
“Although the adverse effects of galactic cosmic rays were long-lasting, functional improvements induced by targeting the redox and nitric oxide pathways in the tissues suggest that erectile dysfunction may be treatable,” says one of the study’s lead authors, Justin La Favor at Florida State University.
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2023-11-22 20:44:15
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