[VIDEO] Astronauts would likely suffer back pains in space: Study

Astronaut's back may be jeopardized on the International Space Station. A new study indicates that in microgravity, the muscles are liable to atrophy and causes the bone in the spine to harden and straighten out. These body changes that the astronaut's experience leads to weakening of the muscles and back pains.

The study was published in the journal SPINE. It was led by a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The research is significant both for astronauts and humans who might be on the mission to planet Mars in the next few years to come.

It is reported that more than half of crew members who were on missions were complaining of spinal pain after returning to Earth. On the other hand, they increase in body height by two-inch due to spinal unloading and other body changes associated to microgravity. The team also discovered that the astronauts are at greater risk of spinal disc herniation after a prolonged mission in space, according to Daily Mail.

In the study, the researchers examined the six NASA astronauts who spent four to seven months in microgravity on the International Space Station. Based on their MRIs and stress tests, the paraspinal muscles of the astronauts shrank by 19 percent in size after their space mission.

Likewise, their cross-sectional area of the muscles shrank from 86 percent to 72 percent. On the other hand, their cross-sectional areas recovered by about two-thirds after two months after a flight.

Dorit Donoviel, deputy chief scientists at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute told the Verge that with muscle if you don't use it you lose it. She further said that if you don't need to stabilize your spine against gravity, it would make sense those muscles would atrophy with time.

Meanwhile, Alan Hargens, a professor of orthopedic surgery at UC San Diego and one of the authors of the study and his team are recommending best exercises and devices for NASA astronauts and researchers to lessen the effects. Hargens said that yoga could help with core strength and neck devices could also help.