When Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom blasted into space on suborbital flights in 1961, “there nothing extra added to those missions,” she says. ![]() The early days of the Mercury program, when it came to small gear or details like how an astronaut might consume food in space, represented what Levasseur describes as an “ad hoc, experimental phase.” “NASA number-one priority in putting people into space was to make the spacecraft operable, to make it safe,” she says. Levasseur, a curator in the space history department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Small equipment like watches destined for space may be fascinating, but it was never the space agency’s top concern, says Jennifer K. It remains the only watch certified by the agency for astronauts to wear on EVAs, on the moon or in open space. And what’s more rugged than a watch that can handle the vacuum of space? The Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, as it’s now known, remains the only timepiece to meet NASA’s call, in the mid-1960s, for a mechanical chronograph that could endure 12 Gs of acceleration ( that’s a lot-here’s what pulling 6 Gs feels like) and temperatures up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a detail that sticks with people-and that Omega has certainly capitalized on in its marketing-in part because watches are so familiar for the rest of us. For example: Buzz Aldrin wore a watch on the outside of his spacesuit as he strode across the moon, and like astronauts before and after him, that watch was an Omega Speedmaster. Half a century later, we’re still captivated by the details of that event, from the mysteries that still remain since we’ve landed, to the equipment and gear that made it possible. The study was funded by the ALS Association.This year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first time people set foot on Earth’s moon. Cudkowicz and Alberto Ascherio, 21 June 2023, Neurology. Reference: “Association of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Clinical Progression in Patients With ALS: Post Hoc Analysis of the EMPOWER Trial” by Kjetil Bjornevik, Marianna Cortese, Jeremy D Furtado, Sabrina Paganoni, Michael A. Obtaining funding will be challenging because ALA is not a patentable drug, but we hope to get it done.” “We are now reaching out to clinical investigators to promote a randomized trial to determine whether ALA is beneficial in people with ALS. “The link our study found between diet and ALS is intriguing,” said senior author Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition. Two additional fatty acids were also associated with reductions in risk of death during the study period: eicosapentaenoic acid, another omega-3 fatty acid found in fatty fish and fish oil, and linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid found in vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds. Of the 126 participants who died within 18 months of the study’s onset, 33% belonged to the group with the lowest ALA levels, while 19% belonged to the group with the highest ALA levels.Īdjusting for factors like age, sex, ethnicity, BMI, symptom duration, and family history of ALS, the researchers calculated that participants with the highest levels of ALA had a 50% lower risk of death during the study period compared to participants with the lowest levels of ALA. They found that ALA showed the most benefits of all the omega-3 fatty acids, as it was most strongly linked to slower decline and decreased risk of death. They then followed up 18 months later to track the groups’ physical functionality and survival according to the clinical trial. The researchers measured the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in participants’ blood and placed the participants into four groups, from highest to lowest omega-3 fatty acid levels. ![]() ![]() As part of this trial, the severity of their symptoms and the progression of their disease were tested and then scored from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating less severe symptoms of the disease. The researchers conducted a study among 449 people living with ALS who participated in a clinical trial. “These findings, along with our previous research, suggest that this fatty acid may have neuroprotective effects that could benefit people with ALS.” In this study, we found that among people living with ALS, higher blood levels of ALA were also associated with a slower disease progression and a lower risk of death within the study period,” said lead author Kjetil Bjornevik, assistant professor of epidemiology and nutrition. “Prior findings from our research group have shown that a diet high in ALA and increased blood levels of this fatty acid may decrease the risk of developing ALS.
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