Artificial gravity training improves orthostatic tolerance in ambulatory men and women

Orthostatic intolerance (OI) continues to be a problem experienced by astronauts upon return from spaceflight. Artificial gravity (AG) training via short radius centrifugation has been suggested as a countermeasure to this OI. The purpose of our research was to determine effects of three weeks of intermittent (+1 to +2.5G_z for 35 min/day) AG exposure on normal, ambulatory men and women. The results of this study indicate that 3 weeks of AG training improved orthostatic tolerance in a group of 14 men and 12 women by an average of 13.6%. This improvement was associated with a decrease in arterial pressure and vascular resistance, and increases in stroke volume and low frequency (0.04-0.15 Hz) arterial pressure and heart rate spectral power. These results suggest that improvement may be attributable to increased venous return possibly as a function of increased stress-induced sympathetic activity and/or vascular sympathetic responsiveness.