Dietary instead of pharmacological management to counter the adverse effects of physiological adaptations to space flight.

The development of pharmacological counter-measures to the adverse effects of physiological adaptation to microgravity has received relatively more attention than alternatives such as dietary management. The manipulation of dietary cation-anion balance, and its subsequent effects on acid-base metabolism, have been routinely used for some time in managing domestic animal health. More recently, dietary intake by humans of alkalinizing potassium salts has been demonstrated to exert profound beneficial effects on calcium balance, bone mineralization, predisposition to calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis, and overall nitrogen balance. Dietary sodium restriction has also been shown to improve calcium balance, bone mineralization, and the effectiveness of neurohumoral defenses against orthostatic hypotension. It is proposed that these simple alterations in the astronauts' diets may be easily implemented to lessen the adverse effects of physiological adaptations to space flight, and to enhance or even replace prescribed pharmacological counter-measures.