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What does growing older have to do with floating in space? Just ask Robert Fitts, Ph.D., a space biologist whose research on astronauts could apply to the elderly on Earth.

Fitts, professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, has studied muscle wasting for NASA for more than a decade. His team was the first to study astronaut muscle at the molecular level and one of just two in the world to ever biopsy astronaut muscle.

NASA is counting on researchers such as Fitts to help astronauts go to Mars. Going to Mars would likely be a three-year mission, and after just six months in space, astronauts lose an average of 20 percent of their calf muscles. Researchers need to find ways to stave off muscle wasting and determine whether the rate of atrophy levels off after time.

Their solutions could help more than just astronauts.

“Muscle wasting in space is more accelerated than what you get from aging,” Fitts says. “But with aging, especially from age 50 and onward, one loses a lot of mean body mass, which is mainly muscle. So the type of exercises that we will ultimately develop to prevent the wasting of the astronaut muscle will ultimately be applicable to aging populations.”

It’s particularly important for bed-ridden patients. In Fitts’ earlier research, he used bed rest studies with subjects’ heads tilting slightly downward, mimicking the effects of space flight. The cardiovascular response and bone and muscle atrophy were similar to that of astronauts.

Diet is also important. Fitts and collaborators have found that an essential amino acid supplement used during bed rest can protect muscle power.

“A lot of elderly don’t eat right, and some lose their appetites, which is exactly what happens to astronauts,” Fitts says. “So what happens is when they exercise, they use their muscle as fuel. It’s sort of a vicious cycle: The aging process loses muscle anyway, and then you get a little more inactive, and that accelerates the loss, and then you don’t eat properly, and that accelerates it further.”

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Protecting muscles on and off Earth