WATERLOO - Astronauts on the International Space Station will help out with a University of Waterloo kinesiology professor's research into heart health.

The space station crew members will wear a special shirt equipped with sensors to continuously monitor heart rate, breathing and activity, and test their blood sugar, said UW's Richard Hughson.

The Canadian research will investigate astronauts' cardiovascular health and the connection between physical activity and insulin resistance - helpful information for both people in space and on Earth.

"We know that insulin resistance develops in people who are inactive," said Hughson, the Schlegel research chair in vascular aging and brain health at UW. "On Earth, type 2 diabetes is becoming epidemic."

Hughson was part of a NASA technical briefing on Wednesday, ahead of next week's scheduled launch of a resupply ship that will carry scientific research and hardware to the space station including supplies for oral glucose-tolerance tests and the Montreal-made biomonitoring shirt.

"The astronaut will wear this device for 72 hours," Hughson said of this latest experiment in a series.

The conference call included a sampling of the scientific investigations and technology headed to the space laboratory, where the low-Earth orbit provides a unique environment with microgravity and extreme conditions.

Hughson explained that an astronaut's carotid arteries stiffen to the equivalent of what normally happens in 10 to 20 years of aging while in space for six months.

"We also discovered that they were developing insulin resistance," Hughson said.

The changes in the short term are likely not a big deal because people aren't staying in space now for more than a few months, he said. "In the long term, it could be quite important."

Poor glucose tolerance means the glucose level stays high in a person's blood after eating, where it can bind to protein in the blood vessels and cause increased stiffness. Over time, that can lead to heart disease.

"Sedentary behaviour is really one of the major underlying causes of type 2 diabetes and all the health consequences that arise from that," Hughson said.

The lessons learned in space can give people on Earth an incentive to be active.

"If you can send a really fit, healthy astronaut into space and he or she starts developing insulin resistance because of the physical inactivity of space flight, it really, I hope, drives home the message to all of us on Earth how important it is to have regular periods of physical activity throughout the whole day."

jweidner@therecord.com

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