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American Morning

NASA Asking Some Research Subjects to Spend 30 Days in Bed

Aired April 11, 2002 - 08:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Back here on Earth, NASA is doing some research to help future missions, asking some research subjects to spend 30 days in bed. They're not allowed to stand, or even sit, nothing. Everything has to be done in bed. Even if this somehow sounds appealing, there's a catch to the NASA research. You have to be an identical twin to participate.

As CNN's medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland tells us, this is a real experiment, one month in bed, all in the name of science.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet the Ashmont twins, 24-year-old Stacy and Casey. They left behind modeling careers and cleaning business in Atlanta to come to the University of California-San Diego and spend a month in bed. Why? To help scientists understand what happens to us physically if we're confined to bedrest? Information that will also help astronauts in space, since lack of gravity is almost the physical equivalent.

By a flip of a coin, Casey got assigned the bed by the window, and no exercise, while Stacy has to do exercise 45 minutes a day, six days a week. We met the twins on day 29. Were they bored yet?

CASEY ASHMONT: No, because we have a TV, we have our books, we have our journals that we're keeping.

ROWLAND: It doesn't hurt that they're each making $100 a day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of like a paid vacation.

ROWLAND: Just down the hall, the Smith twins fro Orlando, Ray and Ron, saw the study as an opportunity to study for a career change and work on their game of gin rummy, and it helps time pass when you get a visit from a real life astronaut, like Bill Shepherd.

BILL SHEPHERD, NASA ASTRONAUT: We're moving toward the period where we understand how to have people living, and working and being healthy in space indefinitely. There are big questions about how to do that.

ROWLAND: To help get the answers, the twins have to do everything in bed. No visits to the bathroom.

ALAN HARGENS, UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA: It's very difficult and a challenging protocol for our subjects.

ROWLAND: Actually, their herds always tilted down at a six- degree angle, mimicking the effects of being in space.

HARGENS: In other words, you get a fluid shift up toward your head. You have a lot of muscle atrophy. You lose blood volume. You start to lose bone.

ROWLAND: Why put both twins through the trauma?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of doing twins is that so we can study, essentially, the same person at the same time under two different conditions.

ROWLAND: And find out if exercising at a vertical angle can help prevent that physical deterioration.

Whether you're in bed recovering from injury, or confined to outer space. So how did it feel on day 30 when it was time to get up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

ROWLAND: Rhonda Rowland, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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