Good news for astronauts: Fatty tissue helps replenish bone and red blood cells in space

anne mcclain floats in a space station in front of two big windows facing earth. in her hands is a tangle of bags, sampling cubes and wires for a science experiment

While space travel sucks out red blood cells and weakens bone, all is not lost in microgravity.

Fatty tissue inside your bones acts as a stopgap against declining cells and bone density in weightlessness, a new study of International Space Station (ISS) astronauts suggests. Better yet, treatments based on this new knowledge may help aging populations — as well as folks on Earth who must stay in bed due to medical conditions.