A doctor has raised concerns about the health of one of NASA’s stranded astronauts after a recent photo showed her looking “thin.”
Sunita Williams, 59, has spent 152 days in space after Boeing’s faulty Starliner spacecraft left her stuck on the International Space Station.
Williams and her fellow astronaut Barry Wilmor docked on June 6 for what would be an eight-day mission, but have remained ever since.
While the two have taken a positive stance in their public comments and interviews, a recent photo tells a different story, according to Dr. Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and veteran in Seattle.
Dr. Gupta told DailyMail.com: ‘What you see there in that photo is someone who I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at very high altitudes, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods of time.’
“Obviously in some, you know, her cheek looks a little bit sunken – and usually this happens when you’ve had some sort of total weight loss,” Dr. Gupta added.
‘I think I can tell by her face and her sunken cheeks [she] has probably been significant [calorie] shortage for a while.’
The body burns more calories in space as it adapts to changes in gravity and tries to maintain body temperature in cold, harsh conditions. To prevent muscle and bone loss, astronauts exercise about 2.5 hours a day, which burns more calories.
It comes just days after an entire NASA crew was hospitalized without explanation after spending more than 200 days on the ISS.
IMAGE OF HEALTH: Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmor before their mission on June 6
WEARING HER: A doctor has raised concerns about Sunita’s health, claiming on September 24 that she looked ‘thin’.
In the photo, which was posted on September 24, Williams is seen tucking into a pepperoni pizza and fries, surrounded by herbs and other treats.
‘I don’t I think based on what I see in the photo anyway, I don’t think she’s in a place at all where her life is in danger,” Dr. Gupta said.
‘BBut I don’t think you can look at that photo and say she’s a healthy body weight.
‘TThere’s just some things that the human body can’t adapt to, and one of them is, you know, she’s probably losing more calories than she’s taking in.”
Astronauts are encouraged to consume up to 3,500 calories per day in space to prevent body breakdown.
But Dr. Gupta said, “Your metabolism [in space] fundamentally requires you to burn a lot more energy than you expend, even if you take slices of pepperoni.
“To operate in an environment where her body, even though it’s under pressure, is probably working harder to do basic things because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than at sea level.
The crew eats high-calorie food to counteract the severe muscle-wasting effects of being in space
“They’re taking very high calorie foods, as you can see, processed meats and, you know, other meats, the proteins, but high fat processed meats, it’s not necessarily a balanced diet.”
The problem of body breakdown is a particular concern for women.
A 2014 NASA study found that women lose a greater volume of blood plasma than men during spaceflight, and that women’s stress response typically includes an increase in heart rate, while men respond with an increase in vascular resistance.
The loss of blood plasma causes your metabolism to temporarily increase while your body mobilizes resources to adapt to the loss of plasma.
And this response can slightly increase your calorie burn, resulting in weight loss similar to what Williams may experience.
Another study published in 2023 by Ball University also found that women lose more muscle mass than men in microgravity environments such as spaceflight.
Researchers examined muscle loss (atrophy) in men and women during two extended bed rest trials.
The men spent 90 days and the women 60 days in a six-degree tilt position, with their heads under their feet.
This simulated a weightless condition similar to what crew members experience during spaceflight.
Both volunteer groups ate, slept, performed personal hygiene and all other activities either with the head tilted downward or in a horizontal position.
The team found that all participants lost a significant amount of muscle mass in both parts of the leg during the bed rest period, compared to before bed rest.
The women lost more quadriceps muscle mass after one month compared to the men, and the women lost more muscle mass after two months than the men did after three months.
“The amount of oxygen in the air is lower than at baseline, and their nutritional intake will not be as robust as on the ground,” says Dr. Gupta.
‘Their opportunities to exercise will be limited. So any kind of physiological variable that defines our well-being is going to be suboptimal, especially even in a pressurized cabin, but in their case in space, right?
“So what you see there in that photo, especially with Sunita, is someone who I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at very high altitudes, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods of time.”
He went on to explain that even though Williams has had the necessary training to spend time on the ISS, there are “just things that the human body can’t adapt to.”
“Her metabolism is probably off the roof, to stay warm, to work in an environment where her body, even though it’s under pressure, is probably working harder to do basic things because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than it would be its sea level,” Dr. Gupta added.