The world watched last night while two NASA astronauts came out of their space capsule from the coast of Florida after nine uncertain months.
Sunita Williams, 59, smiled and waved when she was removed from the SpaceX Dragon Craft and helped in a stretcher, in which she insured the audience.
But health experts have picked up a small detail that reveals the silent health struggle with which she is now confronted.
After waving, her right arm suddenly became limp and flopped against her thighs as if they were much heavier – the result of so long spending in zero gravity.
Doctors who viewed the images told DailyMail.com that the movement can be a sign of muscle waste while he is in space for 286 days.
In the micro -gravity of the room, muscles become smaller because the body does not have to work so hard to maintain the posture.
Her heart can also have shrunk because the body does not have to exert much energy to make blood flow.
But the fact that she was still able to lift her arm in the first place was a good sign, doctors say.
It comes after other experts have expressed concern about the health of Williams that points to her thin wrists, which they said they can also point to weight loss and muscle waste.
Dr. Stanton Gerson – who investigates the impact of deep space on cells – said that William's seemed much more vulnerable than her male crew member, Butch Wilmore.
“She had more problems, if you want, than the other astronaut with getting up,” he told this website.
'This can be because it is really difficult to keep muscle mass in space without the help of gravity.
'In space there is no difference on muscle mass, because there is no stress and tension of gravity and, as a result, not from exercises.
“That means that when you push and pull exercises, it does not exercise the same level of muscle activation as on earth.”
In micro -gravity, muscles experience considerably less resistance, so that they lead to atrophy over time.
On earth, gravity constantly forces muscles – especially those in the legs, back and core – to work against it, creating a mechanical load that prevents waste.
Astronaut Williams waves to the camera after he has been pulled out of her spacecraft
Her arm flops immediately and becomes limp
The doctor also pointed out that Williams would be exhausted after her trip.
It takes about eight hours for astronauts to pack and carry out before the flight at the space station, and then another 17 hours to undo and fly back to the earth.
He said: 'What I see is a happy, tired, astronaut. Consider how you would feel after a long transatlantic flight. '
Asked how much muscle mass the astronauts may have lost in space, he said that this would probably be in the single digits and 'minimal' – based on his experience with earlier missions.
“It would be in some figures in terms of percentage of muscle mass, and we even had some cases – very few – where astronauts came back with a little extra muscle mass,” he added.
Men have more muscle mass than women, which can lead to women who are hit more seriously by the loss of a small amount of muscle mass.
On the return to earth, he said that astronauts may have appeared unstable because of the impact of the planet's gravity in their inner ear.
“It turns out that our inner ear has evolved very well for the environment here on earth,” he said.
'But in the room, due to the lack of gravity, we lose part of the liquid in the inner ear that starts to behave differently.
“When we come back, this can cause Vertigo,” which is a feeling of turning, swirling or moving if you are not really moving.
It always takes time for astronauts to recover after returning to the US from space, where experts say that this can take a month to three months.
But there are no registered cases of astronauts suffering from permanent health problems due to being in space.
Dr. Vin Gupta, an air force surgeon who works with people who spend a long time in the air, added that it was a good plate that she could still lift her arm.
“Anyone who is able to raise his arm can therefore successfully lower his arm, should be fine,” he said.
Studies have shown that other health effects of long periods are in space, the brain shrinking and swelling in the eyes, which happens because the lack of gravity causes the positioning of liquids.
Dr. Stanton said that patients recover quickly after returning to earth without long -term adverse health effects.
He said that some astronauts reported 'brain fog' after returning to earth, but that this will disappear within a few days to weeks.
