Aug 22 1983
From The Space Library
ARC scientists said that exercise, coupled with a low-calorie diet, might counteract effects of weightlessness on the levels of insulin and glucose in the blood of space travelers. Plasma and glucose had increased during simulated weightlessness, returning to normal after exercise.
Simulations of weightlessness for one or two weeks of prolonged bed rest had approximated the physiological responses occurring in space; resting without exercise had decreased the ability to use glucose, and average levels of blood sugar rose more than 10% above normal, a condition like a prediabetic state. Also, a more than 200% rise in blood insulin occurring in the test subjects seemed to result from normal production of the hormone and less use of it. Tests showed that, even with ample circulation of insulin, the body was less able to control glucose storage. Exercise and low-calorie diets would be used to solve the problem in test subjects. (NASA Release 83-130; ARC Release 83-37)
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