Elon Musk and his disciples make space travel sound so cool but it turns out to totally f up your body and mind.

You're right, this sounds dreadful:

Off-world, the microgravity of space has numerous implications for human health. For starters, the body will suffer a significant increase in bone loss— older men and women tend to lose one to 1.5 percent of their bone density annually on Earth, while space travelers lose about one percent each month.

Losing calcium from the bones can overstress the kidneys, leading to kidney stones, and all muscles, including the heart, become weaker. Among the most serious effects of space on the body is intracranial pressure — blood and fluid shift upward to the head, increasing pressure in the tissues of the brain and spine. The consequences of this pressure are vast and serious, with vision degradation being the most immediate.

One hypothesis groups these blood flow-related threats to human endurance in space under a single diagnosis, Space Obstructive Syndrome. The medical synopsis doesn’t make for easy reading, whether you understand medical terminology or not. Imagine the vast, cold infinity as able to reach inside your body and slowly squeeze your jugular vein as you float weightlessly inside its void.