Spaceflight-induced Bone Loss: Is there an Osteoporosis Risk?
Abstract
Currently, the measurement of areal bone mineral density (aBMD) is used at NASA to evaluate the effects of spaceflight on the skeletal health of astronauts. Notably, there are precipitous declines in aBMD with losses >10 % detected in the hip and spine in some astronauts following a typical 6-month mission in space. How those percentage changes in aBMD relate to fracture risk in the younger-aged astronaut is unknown. Given the unique set of risk factors that could be contributing to this bone loss (eg, adaptation to weightlessness, suboptimal diet, reduced physical activity, perturbed mineral metabolism), one might not expect skeletal changes due to spaceflight to be similar to skeletal changes due to aging. Consequently, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurement of aBMD may be too limiting to understand fracture probability in the astronaut during a long-duration mission and the risk for premature osteoporosis after return to Earth. Following a brief review of the current knowledge-base, this paper will discuss some innovative research projects being pursued at NASA to help understand skeletal health in astronauts.
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Long-duration spaceflights induce bone mineral density (BMD) loss in weight-bearing bones, with considerable individual variability.
“It is well known that long-duration spaceflights induce BMD loss in weight-bearing bones although there is considerable individual variability [6–12].”
From A human mission to Mars: Predicting the bone mineral density loss of astronauts (2020) · cites this paper as [12]
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References 30 · Cited by 147
- Authors
- Sibonga, J. D.
- Affiliations
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sibonga, Jean D.
- ORCID
- Sibonga, Jean D.
- Venue
- Current Osteoporosis Reports
- Published
- 2013-04-07
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 92-98
- ISSN
- 1544-1873 (ISSN-L)
- 1544-2241
- OpenAlex
- W1994163197
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 5.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Current Osteoporosis Reports (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Spaceflight effects on biology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Bone health and osteoporosis research
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Space Exploration and Technology
- Keywords
- osteoporosis risk, astronauts, areal bone mineral density, fracture risk, mineral metabolism, long-duration spaceflight, bone health monitoring
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Osteoporosis, Space Flight, United States, Weightlessness, Absorptiometry, Photon, Bone Density, Astronauts, Finite Element Analysis
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