Doctor's surprising observation about NASA astronaut Sunita Williams' appearance after return from space

MIAMI, FLORIDA: When NASA astronaut Sunita Williams made her hotly-anticipated return to Earth less than two weeks ago, her appearance had people talking. 

After spending a grueling 288 days in space, Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore splashed down off the Florida coast on March 18, looking visibly different from when they left.

Her face was gaunt, her wrists noticeably thin, and even her hair had turned significantly grayer. The shocking images immediately raised concerns about the toll that nearly 10 months in space had taken on her body. 

But now, a medical expert is saying that Williams actually looks better than she did right after landing.

A doctor’s surprising observation

Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran, told the Daily Mail that Williams appears to have bounced back remarkably fast. 

When she and Wilmore gave their first post-space interview on Fox News, Gupta noticed something unexpected - her face wasn’t as sunken as it had been right after landing.

"It looks like she just has gotten better sleep," he remarked. "She’s back on level ground. Her metabolism is normalizing to sort of normal gravity."

It’s a stunning contrast to the initial fears surrounding her post-space condition. Experts had warned that reversing the effects of prolonged low-gravity exposure could take up to 1.5 times the length of the mission, meaning Williams and Wilmore could be looking at nearly a year of recovery. Yet, she’s already looking much better just two weeks later.

According to Dr Gupta, this seemingly miraculous transformation is a result of better sleep, healthier eating, and simply being back on Earth.

"She’s probably just eating healthier and is able to sort of modulate and gain back some weight," he explained. "I think two weeks has probably been sufficient to look just healthier."

From ‘skin and bones’ to 'miraculous’ recovery

Williams herself described her recovery as nothing short of "miraculous" during a NASA press conference.

It’s a far cry from the initial shock of her appearance right after exiting Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon capsule. Medical experts pointed out her "visibly thin" wrists, warning that it could indicate rapid weight loss, muscular wasting, and bone density loss.

NASA insiders even revealed to the New York Post back in November that the agency was scrambling to "stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it."

"The pounds have melted off her, and she's now skin and bones," a NASA source admitted at the time. "So it’s a priority to help her stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it."

But just weeks later, Williams is looking healthier after having put on weight and even dyed her hair back to a darker brown. 

Gupta believes that the worst is behind her. "I think the worst is probably well behind them," he said confidently. "The second you’re back on level ground, your body starts to heal and sort of re-equilibrate."

Williams and Wilmore’s mission was never supposed to last this long. The duo originally launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for what was meant to be just an eight-day stay on the ISS. But as soon as they arrived, Starliner started experiencing serious technical failures - including five of its 28 thrusters failing and a helium leak that had been plaguing Boeing’s project for years.

NASA quickly realized that Starliner was not safe to bring them home, leaving the astronauts effectively stranded in space for nine extra months. The capsule was sent back to Earth uncrewed, and Williams and Wilmore had to wait for another way home.

Did diet play a role in Sunita Williams’ condition?

One of the biggest questions surrounding Williams’s weight loss was whether her diet had something to do with it. According to an insider, she had been struggling to keep up with the high-caloric intake necessary to maintain her health in space.

Meanwhile, Wilmore didn’t appear to experience the same extreme physical toll.

Gupta has a theory about that. He pointed out that Williams’s father is a vegetarian, and her first meal back on Earth was a grilled cheese sandwich. That could suggest that she avoids meat-based proteins, which might have made it harder for her to maintain muscle and weight over such a long period in space.

"Meaty sources of fat or protein tend to be fattier, take longer to digest, tend to power up your metabolism for more rigorous activity," Gupta explained.

But NASA has not confirmed whether the astronauts had vastly different diets, so the exact reason for Williams’ weight loss remains a mystery.

"If there was such a difference between what they were intaking, it does not surprise me at all that Sunita looks visibly thinner than her counterpart," Gupta added.

While Williams and Wilmore are on the mend, medical professionals say it could take at least six weeks of rehab to fully regain their strength.

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