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Nasa - Astronaut Fluid Shifts


Dizzysillyak

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Sure sounds like us. What I found interesting is the point where they say that because of the fluid shift in the upper part of the body, the body then makes them begin urinating alot. This all makes me think of a post I made roughly a year ago having to do with astronauts and fluid shifts:

I am not able to paste a link, for some reason, but type in "Head/neck possible contributor to POTS" and you can read the thoughts on this subject.

It makes sense...it seems to be the only thing that explains why some of us(me included) urinate ALOT, and, everything we take in.

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This is why Dr. Levine is promoting exercise for POTS. If we get the leg muscles to contract more efficiently and get the blood to flow upwards better - we should get a better blood flow to the heart and head and the dizziness and blood flow should improve. If there is something other then inefficient muscle contraction - like a blockage of veins or too thick blood - then those things need to be addressed too. I think it's a combination of things that will help us. But, ultimately - we need more blood and oxygen to our heart and brains.

Easy to understand - little video. This would be good for kids or those with not much medical knowledge.

Issie

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Good catch sue,

I was looking for more on this and found this right away. I'm still looking at this but I'm dealing with some health issues so I'm not as coherant as I'd like to be. tc ... d

FWIW. I don't urinate as much when I'm not fighting a UTI. But I get kidney stones so this is something I deal with regularly.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/146855main_Get_A_Leg_Up_Student.pdf

When astronauts first travel into space, they feel as if they have a cold and their faces look puffy. Many astronauts talk about not feeling thirsty because of this fluid shift. The body records this shift as an increase in blood volume. The body takes care of this fluid shift by eliminating what it thinks are extra fluids as it would normally – that’s right – through the kidneys -- resulting in visits to the restroom. Once this "extra fluid" is flushed from the body, astronauts adjust to space and usually feel fine.

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Hi Issie,

Good point on the leg exercises. When I had ataxia my legs felt like they weighed 100 lbs each but that went away majically at the same time my ataxia did. The strength in my legs wasn't there tho and it took me a few months to walk without my leg muscles getting tired. Excercising to get these as strong as possible might really help. I'm finally experimenting with some compression garments too.

I got a kick out of the kid part of the video but the actual facts behind fluid shifts in astronauts was something that hadn't caught my attention before. I was channed surfing on tv when I caught this ... This would've gone right over my head as a kid but my science background was non existent. I could cook and sew tho ... <_<

tc ... d

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Yes, Dizzy, that is the thread. Interesting to reread all that. I'm thinking this astronaut part of fluid shifts to the upper body sure seems to parallel any of the various head/neck issues we've talked about on this forum. All seem to possibly cause too much fluid in the upper body/head, which then the body reads as having TOO much fluid in the body and tries to get rid of it. Maybe pooling in the limbs is also a reaction from that...the body thinks there is too much pressure of blood volume in the head/neck, so it vasodilates to help get it moving out of the area. Curiouser and curiouser!

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Hi sue,

I'm still not thinking clearly enough to research this but wanted to mention it seems to me what

they're saying is that their bodies compensated chemically for fluid shifts. Following the chemical trail

is the part I can't follow yet.

I realize weightlessness

takes all pressure off the nerves too. We need some potsies to spend time in an antigravity

room to see if our symtoms go away. ;)

My oi resolves if I lay down for an hour but come back as soon as

I get up. It takes my body an hour to recover from hypoperfusion. I used my bp monitor

to help me determine this. In the last 15 minutes of being supine, my hr goes down

another 10 - 15 pts. It's then that I feel completely healthy again.

Since most of my me/cfs symptoms

other than those from oi have been gone since oct 2007, via healthy diet, it's easy to see how this works.

Tc .. D

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