Long-Term ISS Astronauts Suffer Strong Headaches

Usually, one of the main requirements that a space agency has of its astronauts is for them to be in perfect health, and not suffer from conditions that could jeopardize their lives in the coldness of space, aboard the International Space Station (ISS). In a study conducted on one female and 16 male astronauts, researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center, in The Netherlands, found that 12 of them (71 percent) reported having 21 headache episodes while on the station. The team asked the participants to supply anonymous data about the pain they experienced during take-off, station time, extra-vehicular activities, and landing.

 

“Our research shows that space flights may trigger headaches without other space motion sickness symptoms in otherwise super healthy subjects. We propose to classify space headache as a separate entity among the secondary headaches attributed to disorders of homeostasis, which is the maintenance of a constant internal environment within the body,” said Leiden University Medical Center Department of Neurology Headache Research team member Dr. Alla Vein. The expert is a part of Professor Michel Ferrari's team, and also the lead researcher of a new study, published in the June issue of the journal Cephalalgia.

 

“Although headaches in space are not generally considered to be a major issue, our study demonstrated that disabling headaches frequently occur during space missions in astronauts who do not normally suffer from headaches on earth. Previous research has shown that astronauts can be reluctant to reveal all the physical complaints they experience in space, so the actual incidence could be even higher than our study suggests,” Dr. Vein added. “Our research shows that space headache is a common and often isolated disabling complaint during space flight. As such we feel that it should be classified as a new secondary headache.”

 

The research team hypothesizes that microgravity could be one of the triggering factors for the debilitating headaches. In 77 percent of reported pain cases, the astronauts described it as “exploding” or “heavy feeling,” while in 6 percent of the cases, they referred to it as extremely intense and severe. On the other hand, 65 percent of participants reported medium headaches, with an additional 29 percent reporting only mild intensities.