Shenk argues over and over again that, “genes are active participants in an ongoing interaction between genes and the environment” (24). He also states that runners from Kenya are so successful because of the environment they live in and their incredible amounts of practice and dedication. During the circulation and respiration unit in class, Ms. I told us that the Olympic grounds are located in Colorado to take advantage of the low oxygen concentrations at the higher elevation to grow stronger athletes and increase their chances of succeeding at sea level.
When astronauts spend months in space in low gravity, low oxygen environments, their body and bone structure will begin to change shape to suit the needs in space. The same happens in underwater environments. If allowed by sporting boards, is it possible to train athletes in space or underwater for extended periods of time to develop different characteristics that could be helpful in athletic competitions? Relate your response to Gene Expression.
When astronauts spend months in space in low gravity, low oxygen environments, their body and bone structure will begin to change shape to suit the needs in space. The same happens in underwater environments. If allowed by sporting boards, is it possible to train athletes in space or underwater for extended periods of time to develop different characteristics that could be helpful in athletic competitions? Relate your response to Gene Expression.
-Rohan Dasika (rohandasika@gmail.com)
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ReplyDeletePart 1 of 2:
ReplyDeleteSince we have already established that high altitude training provides a feasible way to positively alter the body for activity at sea level, let us focus on space training and underwater training as other environmental extremes. Remember that epigenetic alterations occur in order to adapt to the local environment or what the environment demands of the organism. Clearly, though, the epigenome cannot simply adapt to one particular characteristic of the environment (for instance low oxygen levels) but rather must adapt to all characteristics.
Although space training provides the low oxygen levels that endurance athletes seek in order to increase the oxygen carrying capacities of their red blood cells, the other characteristics of space counteract that potential training benefit. The most important factor would be the absence of gravity in space, which consequently affects the skeletal, muscular, and cardiovascular systems. At sea level on Earth, the human body has characteristics that help deal with the constant gravitational force such as support from the skeleton and developed muscles that allow a human to stand and move against the force of gravity. While that human goes into space, though, he or she “no longer needs the full strength of the skeletal and muscular systems for support of their ‘upright’ posture” (http://www.nsbri.org/humanphysspace/introduction/intro-bodychanges.html). Because the environment no longer demands that strength, epigenetics will help in ridding of “excess muscle” and skeletal tissue in order to conserve for other biological functions. Such conservation of energy relates to the biological theme of Energy Transfer. As humans obtain sources of ATP from food, they need to allocate those precious ATP’s to only the most necessary and important functions. While in space, the body decides that it does not need to transfer as much energy from ATP to growth and repair of muscle/skeletal cells because less strength is necessary to maintain posture due to the lack of gravity. Instead, the body decides to transfer the energy elsewhere or even save it.
Furthermore, gravity plays a key role in shaping our circulatory system. Campbell notes that “gravity has a significant effect on blood pressure” (Campbell 908). Indeed, as we experienced during lab 22: physiology of the circulatory system, blood pressure and heart rate both increase upon standing up because of the force of gravity. Our bodies have adapted to circulating with and against gravity, such as by increasing blood pressure near the head. But when in space, the body no longer needs these changes because gravity disappears. Most importantly, the heart no longer needs to pump with as much force in order to allow blood to reach the head. Consequently, when the human from space returns, “the heart is smaller and weaker and has undergone cardiovascular deconditioning relative to the physiological needs on Earth” (http://www.nsbri.org/humanphysspace/introduction/intro-bodychanges.html). Since training in space apparently weakens multiple bodily systems involved in athletics, athletes should probably avoid the practice.
In fact, the changes that occur in the cardiovascular and other bodily systems as the body acclimates to space relates to the biological theme of Structure vs. Function. We’ve discussed how the heart illustrates a key example of structure vs. function at work because the size of the heart helps determine its strength or how forcefully it can pump the blood. The decrease in heart size while in space serves to fit its new function – to pump blood less forcefully than it once had to while under the effects of gravity on Earth. The same goes for the muscles and skeleton as discussed earlier; less muscular and skeletal tissue means smaller or thinner size of the muscles/skeleton, which serves to represent the newly diminished function of support because less strength is needed without gravity.
Mark Zhang (mzhang59@gmail.com)
Part 2 of 2:
ReplyDeleteUnderwater training would also have various setbacks regardless of the potential benefits; many of these setbacks mirror those found in space training. The buoyancy of water would again render skeletal and muscular strength required for upright posture to be much more useless than on ground, and the body’s newly acquired neural adaption to the feeling of being weightless would hinder athletic performance above water. Thus, changing environments for the purpose of training poses great risks due to the fact that multiple environmental qualities change from those of ordinary sea level environment.
Mark Zhang (mzhang59@gmail.com)