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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		How microgravity affects astronauts
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2015-09-12 19:00:00
	Description:		If you’ve ever wanted to be taller, you may want to consider living in space. It turns out that astronauts can grow as much as two inches taller under microgravity conditions because the lighter load causes the soft discs in their spines to expand. Biomechanics professor Grace O’Connell of the University of California, Berkeley says that under Earth’s gravity, the discs compress and squeeze out water. "So just having gravity pull down on you all day long, the water flows out of the disc. We see the reverse with astronauts and patients that are bedridden for a very long period of time. Astronauts are actually taller when they come back because they have low loading and their disc continues to expand." Narrator: But O’Connell says that astronauts are also at greater risk of back injury, which is what inspired her lab to study the properties of spinal discs. "Astronauts have a significant problem with bone loss when they're in space. And that can cause other problems they have a higher rate of herniation, which causes significant back and leg pain."
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