{"id":242843,"date":"2026-08-18T06:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/spaceflight-could-change-how-astronauts-swallow-eat-and-drink-in-subtle-ways"},"modified":"2026-08-18T06:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:03:22","slug":"spaceflight-could-change-how-astronauts-swallow-eat-and-drink-in-subtle-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/spaceflight-could-change-how-astronauts-swallow-eat-and-drink-in-subtle-ways","title":{"rendered":"Spaceflight could change how astronauts swallow, eat and drink in subtle ways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/spaceflight-could-change-how-astronauts-swallow-eat-and-drink-in-subtle-ways.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Imagine trying to swallow a sip of water while your face feels stuffed with congestion, your sense of taste is dulled and your body is floating 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n<p>That scenario is part of everyday life for astronauts aboard the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight changes the human body in dramatic ways. Muscles shrink, bones lose density and bodily fluids shift toward the head. Astronauts often return with puffy faces, stuffy noses and a feeling similar to a lingering cold. When you\u2019re congested, you might have more difficulty swallowing\u2014but does microgravity also affect this important body function?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine trying to swallow a sip of water while your face feels stuffed with congestion, your sense of taste is dulled and your body is floating 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. That scenario is part of everyday life for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Spaceflight changes the human body in dramatic ways. Muscles [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}