Space Headaches: Incidenence and Characteristics (Space Headaches)
Research Area: Nervous and Vestibular Systems
Expedition(s): 29-ongoing
Principal Investigator(s): ● Alla Vein, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Headaches are a common complaint during spaceflight. The Space Headaches experiment
improves our understanding of such conditions, which helps in the development of methods to
alleviate associated symptoms and improve the well-being and performance of crew members
in orbit. This can also improve our knowledge of similar conditions on Earth.
SPACE BENEFITS
Headaches during spaceflight can negatively
affect mental and physical capacities of crew
members, which can influence performance
during a space mission. Data from this
experiment improve our understanding of
such conditions, providing a stepping stone
to development of countermeasures to
alleviate associated symptoms, thus
improving the well-being of our crew
members in orbit and in turn improving
astronaut performance.EARTH BENEFITS
Headaches are also common on Earth, either
as an isolated condition or as one symptom
of another medical condition. Improving the
knowledge we gather in space of the nature and occurrence of headaches could also provide an
insight to associated conditions on Earth.
RESULTS
No results are available yet as the investigation is still ongoing.
This investigation is ongoing, and additional results are pending publication.
NASA image shows a close-up of astronaut John
Grunsfeld performing a spacewalk to work on the
Hubble Space Telescope. Astronauts who have no
history of bad headaches can be prone to disabling
attacks while in space, a phenomenon that suggests
"space headaches" deserve a medical category all of
their own neurologists said