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Gunther Von Hagens' BODY WORLDS Anatomical Exhibitions Raising Health Awareness in America

Posted on: Friday, 10 March 2006, 09:00 CST

DENVER, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when the Office of the Surgeon General has declared disease prevention and improving health literacy important public health priorities, anatomist and physician Dr. Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS anatomical exhibitions have driven the health message home to nearly three million Americans in Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Toronto and Houston.

Seven of ten Americans who die each year die of a preventable chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes and many forms of cancer. Tobacco-related illnesses are also a leading cause of death that kills 435,000 people each year. But where public health initiatives encourage people to take small manageable steps towards better health, Dr. von Hagens exhibitions, which offer shocking lessons about the effects of lifestyle choices on health, inspire immediate conversion to healthy lifestyles.

BODY WORLDS' long meditation on the human body compels thoughtful viewers to see that life is fleeting, and that the body though resilient is vulnerable to what we do it. No smoker completing a tour of the exhibit will light a cigarette again without envisioning the black lungs of real smokers, now dead, on display next to the healthy pink lungs of non-smokers. "I knew the effects of smoking but I wasn't motivated to give it up until I saw the black lung," said John Tyrell, who has not lit a cigarette since he saw the exhibition in Los Angeles. In the display, "Suicide by Fat: Obesity Revealed," vertical slabs of a 300-pound man who died at age 50, show thick layers of whitish fat, not unlike the marbling on bacon, around distressed-looking organs. Similar slices of a 120-pound man with thinner fat layers and pinker organs are displayed at the same station. The display left its mark on Dana Morrisey, a 22-year-old college student who said her weight was out of control. "It was a case of reality bites. When I saw the obesity specimen, I knew what I would end up like if I didn't make some changes," said Morrisey, who caught the exhibition in Chicago.

In an exit survey at BODY WORLDS exhibition sites, 66 percent of visitors stated that they would pay more attention to their physical health in the future. In follow up interviews six months later, and visitor comments on BODY WORLDS' website, an overwhelming number of visitors stated that they made lifestyle changes in diet, alcohol, smoking, and exercise habits. "Though the body has a memory and is affected by what we do to it, it also has an amazing resilience and capacity to change. Even small changes we make will pay off with big dividends," says Dr. von Hagens. "Many who have seen the exhibition say it gave them the impetus to change. Since our mission is health education, we consider such changes the true achievement."

BODY WORLDS exhibitions are currently showing in Philadelphia, Houston and Denver, and will open in May in St. Paul. For more information, please visit http://www.bodyworlds.com/ .

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link. Dr. Gunther von Hagens http://profnet.prnewswire.com/ud_public.jsp?userid=10018455

BODY WORLDS

CONTACT: Georgina Gomez, +1-213-291-9572, or g.gomez@plastination.com ,or Gail Vida Hamburg, +1-312-602-5369, or g.hamburg@plastination.com , both ofBODY WORLDS

Web site: http://www.bodyworlds.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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