Between September and December 2001, 28 volunteers participated in an unprecedented study on the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body. It is actually possible to simulate some of these effects by confining the test subjects to a horizontal position, in a ""bed rest"" situation, with the head slightly downwards.
The main effects of prolonged weightlessness, which are weakening muscles, loss of bone mass, and disturbances in cardio-vascular circulation, can be simulated with such bed rest studies. Today's transmission includes images from the preparation of the test subjects, from their daily life during the study itself, and from medical examinations performed to measure the effects of bed rest.
The first part of the bed rest study included 28 subjects, in two control groups to study various possible remedies to the negative effects. A second part of the bed rest study, with another group of 14 volunteers, is scheduled to start in March. The final results of the study will also be very u

BEDREST STUDY - UPDATE
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Space is the only environment that offers scientists genuine conditions of weightlessness. On Earth, scientists try to simulate the effect of the absence of gravity on humans with the aim to develop medical techniques that will help maintain the health of astronauts in space, during missions that can be as long as several months.
In the most recent simulation, 28 volunteers were confined to bed, in a horizontal position for a period of not less than 90 days.
Each morning, when we wake up and get out of bed each of us goes - without being fully aware of it - through a series of exercises that are mainly concerned with control over our body. Getting up is a kind of test - based on automatic functions and unconscious routines - of the state of our health and especially of our blood circulation, which is controlled by reflexes pushing blood from the legs up into the body. If your health is affected, you stay in bed É
Imagine that for months on end you had to carry out all