Eli5 Why does hanging upside down for too long cause cardiac arrest, but being in space is fine?

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Like, do astronaughts not have this problem?

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When you hang upside down, your body is affected by gravity in the “wrong way”. Your heart is used to pump blood around in your body and your whole system has adjusted to doing this while you are not hanging upside down, with gravity affecting your body the “right way” around.

When you are in space, your body isn’t affected by gravity. Your body also wasn’t made for this either – there are other problems like your muscles degenerate quickly and your eye-sight deteriorates, amongst other things, but your heart can continue to operate normally.

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