Space Medicine in Canada

Space medicine is a unique field of medicine applying a broad understanding of medicine to the extreme environment of space. Physicians involved in space medicine play a pivotal role in understanding the effects of space flight on humans as well as mitigating problems associated with space flight, and managing any health effects that might develop on a mission (1). In addition to the many physiological effects, space medicine includes practicing medicine in this extreme environment. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment must be taken into consideration. It is therefore important to understand the mechanisms of altered human physiological functions in space to establish a new “normal” in reduced microgravity, and to then discover new ways of treating astronauts in space. The space environment has a vast array of effects on almost every component of normal human physiology: