Interstellar brain monitoring

HOUSTON, Texas (Ivanhoe Newswire) Remember standing on your head as a kid? After a minute or so you felt lots of pressure? Scientists say the same thing happens when astronauts fly into space. Without gravity, blood flows to the head, which could cause vision changes and impact future missions. Now new cutting edge devices could help answer those questions and help us here on earth.

Exploring space. For retired astronaut Ken Bowersox, there's nothing like it.

It's kind of a dream like experience to be able to float around while you're working, Ken Bowersox told Ivanhoe.

Bowersox completed five missions including one to the International Space Station. But a weightless environment can take its toll.

On every one of my flights, said Bowersox, I noticed that additional pressure in my head.

NASA scientists believe the loss of gravity is putting pressure on the brain, causing vision changes in astronauts that could jeopardize future long term missions.

There's a number of changes in the microgravity environment, Eric Bershad, M.D., Neurologist and Neurointensivist, and Assistant Professor of Neurology and Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine told Ivanhoe.

That's why Dr. Eric Bershad has developed a new non-invasive way to measure brain health without the use of a spinal tap or hole in the skull.

This could potentially not only benefit astronauts, but also millions of people on earth, explained Dr. Bershad.

Using an ultrasound, the device measures blood flow through the eye artery.

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Interstellar brain monitoring