[Effectiveness of taking prophylactic nutritional measures at Soviet stations in Antarctica]. / Effektivnost' provedeniia profilakticheskikh meropriiatii po pitaniiu na sovetskikh stantsiiakh v Antartide

A protracted consumption of little-mineralized water, as well as deficiency of calcium salts in the food result in a change of a number of indicators on the level of the water and salt and mineral metabolism in the organism of polar explorers, this manifesting itself in a reduced content of calcium salts in the blood and urine, in a change of the bleeding and blood coagulation time, of diuresis and water intake, acid-base equilibrium and of specific weight of the urine. All these changes occur also against the background of an insufficient supply of a complex set of vitamins into the organism, this being due to the fact that the foodstuffs are delivered to the station but once a year, stored for a long time and then subjected to sulinary treatment. An additional active vitaminzation with increased doses of vitamins and mineralization of the food right from the first days of sojourn at the station made it possible to eliminate all the undesirable consequences and to narrow the range of the acclimatization shifts in the body of polar explorers exposed to extremely unfavourable conditions prevailing in the Antarctic.