Health as the physician views it, and the use of space technology to achieve and maintain it.

Abstract

At the outset it should be manifestly obvious to all that there are many definitions of health, and certainly discussion of these is one of the primary concerns of our gathering. Health is defined in the dictionary as ‘a normal condition of body or mind; that is, with all of the parts functioning normally’. Such a definition immediately raises questions in my mind for we are faced with a second definition which may be even more difficult — that of what is normal? In my daily medical activities in support of manned space flight, I deal with ‘normal’ individuals who are being exposed to a rather hostile environment. Normal in this sense could be defined as ‘free from disease’, for many of the individuals the average physician deals with in his daily practice are certainly persons who have some variation of normal in mind or body and are therefore seeking assistance and are willing to pay the charge incurred. One of the unseen benefits of the space program is the continuing effort to define more precisely what we mean by ‘normal’ as regards functioning of body and mind. The range is great and in our program, which depends upon measuring sometimes minute variations in physiological function, we have resorted to using the individual as his own ‘normal’ or control and thus measuring his variations from that ‘normal’ baseline.