Extreme Phys Flashcards
(172 cards)
What is microgravity?
Loss of standard gravity vector over long periods of time
What is the Karman line?
Line (100km) above which aerodynamic lift is not possible (without a rocket)
What is the difference between US and international law demarkation lines for space?
US line - 50 miles/ 81km
International line - 150km
Is there still gravity in space?
Yes, especially when we get close to a big body
Why do astronauts feel weightlessness if there is gravity?
Experience of free falling around the Earth, never hitting it
What is touch temperature in space?
40 degrees C = design
49 degrees C = momentary
What are space station ‘deadspots’?
Where astronauts are forbidden to sleep
Oxygen flow is reduced meaning that sleeping there increases risk of hypercapnia
Why are effective filtration and ventilation required on space stations?
- Off-gassing from non-metallic substances
- Particles don’t settle with limited gravity
- Radiation modified by-products
- Human ‘micro-waste’ (hair, skin, gas etc.)
What are the most important factors to consider with radiation?
Time
Distance
Shielding
What are the requirements of normal gas exchange?
- Efficiently functioning lungs & chest bellows
- Effective pulmonary circulation
- Heart pumping capacity
- Effective vasculature network
- Adequate haemoglobin concentration in blood
- Control mechanisms to regulate gas tensions and pH.
Describe the three types of skeletal muscle fibre.
Slow twitch - type I
Fast twitch:
Type IIa - fast oxidative
Type IIb - fast glycolytic
What is shunted blood?
Blood that enters the arterial system without going through ventilated areas of the lung.
This depresses pO2
During exercise, what are the stimuli for respiration?
‘Very complicated and not fully understood’
- Central command (feed forward)
- Feedback from muscle (afferent)
- Humoral
What do studies say about breathing changes during exercise?
Eldridge et al. 1981 - change initiated before movement in exercise (cats given curare to inhibit muscle, but respiratory rate could still increase)
Adrian et al. 1997 - Neural feedback; group III and IV afferents in cats showed increase firing with exercise
What is the function of an ‘expiratory exchange ratio’?
Indicator of fuel being used at any one time during exercise
6 molecules of oxygen needed for aerobic respiration (6 molecules of glucose produced = 1:1)
A ratio of less than 1 means you’re using fat.
Describe oxygen kinetics during exercise.
Phase I - cardiodynamic
Phase II - primary/ fast
Phase III- steady state
The traditional view was that steady state is always achieved.
What is the ‘anaerobic threshold’?
Lowest exercise intensity at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the muscle
Define ‘onset of blood lactate accumulation’.
Workload the blood lactate rises above 4mmol/L
What changes would you expect to see above the anaerobic threshold?
- Reduced endurance
- Disproportionate increase in VE
- Oxygen kinetics slow (never hits steady state)
Why does oxygen consumption increase during exercise?
- Progressive vasodilation of local muscle units
- Acidemia shifting oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve to the right -> unloading oxygen from Hb
- Oxygen cost of converting lactate to glycogen in the liver
- Increased catecholamine levels
- Increased recruitment of glycolytic fibres
What are the functions of the cardiovascular system during exercise?
- Supply metabolic requirements of the muscle
- Dissipate heat
- Maintain requirements of other organs
What are the general cardiovascular responses to exercise?
- Skeletal muscle blood flow increase (exceeding cardiac output)
- Cardiac output has to increase (by about 600ml/min) to compensate for the increased muscle blood flow
- Heart rate, blood pressure and total peripheral resistance increase
- Competing influence between muscle and central nervous system for oxygen.
What are the cardiovascular responses to isometric exercise?
Decreased stroke volume due to:
- Increased vascular resistance
- Increased sympathetic drive
- Increased diastolic, systolic and mean arterial blood pressure
What are the cardiovascular responses to dynamic exercise?
- Increased stroke volume from increased sympathetic drive and atrial filling (venous return from muscle pump)
- Increased systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure
- Decreased/ unchanged diastolic blood pressure
- Decreased vascular resistance from active muscle vasodilatation.