A. Nicogossian et al., STATUS AND EFFICACY OF COUNTERMEASURES TO PHYSIOLOGICAL DECONDITIONING FROM SPACE-FLIGHT, Acta astronautica, 36(7), 1995, pp. 393-398
The recent biomedical investigations conducted on the Space Shuttle an
d Spacelab have provided a wealth of biomedical information, including
the ability to test the efficacy of proposed countermeasures. This ac
hievement was made possible by the ability to conduct mechanistic and
control-interventive studies simultaneously with a large number of ind
ividuals over a relatively brief period, and to compare these data wit
h results obtained from the Skylab missions. Comparisons between short
- and long-duration results were limited to establishing trends or ext
rapolating from short-duration missions. To date, we have evaluated se
veral protocols involving the lower-body negative pressure (LBNP) devi
ce, the bicycle-ergometer, the treadmill and preparations for body-flu
id replenishment. In many instances, the traditional means of applying
these protocols were not sufficient to protect against space-related
deconditioning. This paper will review current countermeasures and com
pare their efficacy to that of existing protocols. Results from in-fli
ght and ground-based experiments will be presented to illuminate the r
ecommended protocols and procedures.