‘You get taller in space’, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams reveals in an old interview

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will spend a total of 8 months in space now. That is a lot of time that their bodies are subjected to a completely new type of environment where there is no gravity. One of the health concerns that arises with such a situation is space anaemia. It refers to a condition where astronauts experience a reduction in red blood cells because the body destroys all the red blood cells at a faster rate than it can produce them when exposed to the microgravity environment of space.

In an old interview, Sunita Williams also revealed that your hair and fingernails start growing much faster and you tend to get a little bit taller as your spine starts expanding when you are up in space. She also assured that all these things get back to normal in some time once they are back to Earth.

During a visit to India, Williams interacted with the school students and revealed, “Calluses on your feet disappear because you don’t walk, and I noticed my fingernails and hair grew faster. Without gravity, some wrinkles on your face might temporarily smooth out due to fluid shifting upwards. Your spine also expands because there’s no pressure on the cartilage between your vertebrae, making you slightly taller in space. However, these changes reverse once you return to Earth, and gravity takes over again. You shrink back to your normal height, your back might ache a bit.”

She added that one of the significant concerns in space is bone density and muscle mass loss because in microgravity, bones start to lose density quickly. Williams explained, “To counteract this, we exercise rigorously with specialised equipment. We run on treadmills with harnesses to simulate gravity and lift weights to maintain muscle mass, particularly in the hips and legs. We also use exercise bikes for cardiovascular fitness.”

Williams also revealed that though there are several mitigation methods that NASA has in place but there are some things like radiation is still something that the astronauts cannot completely avoid. Cosmic rays and other forms of radiation penetrate the spacecraft, exposing astronauts to levels far beyond what they would experience on Earth. This exposure increases the risk of developing cancer and can cause acute radiation sickness.