Nutritional Orthopedics and Space Nutrition as Two Sides of the Same Coin: A Scoping Review

Since the Moon landing, nutritional research has been charged with the task of guaranteeing human health in space. In addition, nutrition applied to Orthopedics has developed in recent years, driven by the need to improve the efficiency of the treatment path by enhancing the recovery after surgery. As a result, nutritional sciences have specialized into two distinct fields of research: Nutritional Orthopedics and Space Nutrition. The former primarily deals with the nutritional requirements of old patients in hospitals, whereas the latter focuses on the varied food challenges of space travelers heading to deep space. Although they may seem disconnected, they both investigate similar nutritional issues. This scoping review shows what these two disciplines have in common, highlighting the mutual features between (1) pre-operative vs. pre-launch nutritional programs, (2) hospital-based vs. space station nutritional issues, and (3) post-discharge vs. deep space nutritional resilience. PubMed and Google Scholar were used to collect documents published from 1950 to 2020, from which 44 references were selected on Nutritional Orthopedics and 44 on Space Nutrition. Both the orthopedic patient and the astronaut were found to suffer from food insecurity, malnutrition, musculoskeletal involution, flavor/pleasure issues, fluid shifts, metabolic stresses, and isolation/confinement. Both fields of research aid the planning of demand-driven food systems and advanced nutritional approaches, like tailored diets with nutrients of interest (e.g., vitamin D and calcium). The nutritional features of orthopedic patients on Earth and of astronauts in space are undeniably related. Consequently, it is important to initiate close collaborations between orthopedic nutritionists and space experts, with the musculoskeletal-related dedications playing as common fuel.