Episode Details

Episode 134: Martian Medicine 101.    

Future doctor Collins and Dr. Arreaza talk about the health risks of going to space and to Mars, especially the effect of radiation. 

Written by Wendy Collins, MSIII, Ross University School of Medicine. Comments by Hector Arreaza, MD.

You are listening to Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast, your weekly dose of knowledge brought to you by the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program from Bakersfield, California, a UCLA-affiliated program sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista, Let Us Be Your Healthcare Home. This podcast was created for educational purposes only. Visit your primary care provider for additional medical advice.

Today is March 31, 2023.

Arreaza: Wendy, I confess I am excited for today’s topic. My love for space began with E.T. (I know, I am old). I was exposed to that famous movie when I was a little kid, and ever since, I have had a tremendous curiosity about space and Mars. Honestly, I did not think this could be a topic for our podcast until I met you. 

Wendy: I got inspired to talk about space medicine because I want to go into this field. My college degree was in Physics, and I was fortunate to do Astrophysics and Particle Physics research as an undergraduate, as well as coral reef research. I am passionate about Medicine and treating patients, but I also love Aerospace Medicine because it’s so interdisciplinary. Flight surgeons get to scuba dive, work on oceanography, botany, engineering projects, and more, and collaborations like that sound exciting to me. Anyways let us talk about what is going on in the industry right now. Dr. Arreaza, do you know what humans are doing in space this year?

Arreaza: I do! I like to watch the launches online and in person. I have seen several SpaceX rockets from my backyard (something I never imagined I could do), and there has been some big news, we are going back to the moon! 

Wendy: Yes! Artemis 1 was a successful unmanned mission to orbit the moon and it was launched in November and landed in December last year. Now we look to Artemis 2, which will be a manned lunar flyby. So, like Artemis 1, but with astronauts onboard. And the goal for future missions after that is to land on the moon, establish a lunar base, and eventually prepare us for a long-term space flight like that to Mars. And there is even a presidential order to land humans on Mars by 2033. 
Arreaza: Yes, it is very exciting! BUT there are many, many human health risks to space flight.

Wendy: Even more for space flight outside of low earth orbit. Because of this, and because space flight is becoming commercialized, space medicine is a growing field, and growing in all medical specialties. Believe it or not, I was just in a talk by a NASA flight surgeon where it was mentioned that NASA is even looking for OB/GYN because 50% of their astronauts are women who need gynecological care, and they currently have to go off-site to receive it.

Arreaza: That’s so cool! I’ve read of a handful of civilian and military aerospace medicine training programs for physicians after residency. And since we’re in Bakersfield and only a stone’s throw away from this campus, why don’t we briefly mention the University of California Los Angeles?

Wendy: Yes, so UCLA established an aerospace fellowship very recently in 2021. That fellowship, unlike the rest of them, is actually for board-certified emergency medicine physicians only right now, I believe the only one that does not consider other specialties like internal medicine and family medicine, but the program is new so who knows that may change. The fellowship’s goal is to train the next generation of space flight surgeons. Part of the medical training includes working in arctic environments, Mars analog missions, which includes rotations at SpaceX and NASA’s