Bone Loss: Managing Calcium and Bone Loss in Space

Abstract

Abstract November 11, 1982: aboard the Salyut 7 space station, Valentin Lebedev finds his crewmate Anatoli Berezovoy writhing in pain. The pain is on the left side of his abdomen. Both the crew and mission control are concerned, but fortunately the symptoms resolve on their own, and the mission moves forward [1]. In retrospect, the leading possible cause of the pain was a kidney stone. Although the details are not known, one explanation is that unloading of the skeleton led to calcium leaving the bones. This calcium entered the urine, increasing the risk of kidney stone formation during the flight. Berezovoy’s symptoms started when the stone, which had been growing in the kidney, broke loose and traveled down a ureter. The case highlights one of the major physiological changes facing crews in weightlessness: bone and calcium loss.