The Body Beauty
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By BECKY WRIGHT
Standard-Examiner staff
bwright@standard.net
When Susan Terry stepped into a "Body Worlds" exhibit the first time, she thought, "What a miracle this human body is."
"I frequently think it's not surprising what goes wrong with our bodies -- it's surprising what doesn't go wrong," said Dr. Terry, medical director over University Health Care Community Clinics in Utah, a presenting partner for the exhibit.
"There are so many intricate processes and systems, and we're assaulting them all of the time with a variety of things -- too much sun, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, too much food or not enough food. With the constant assault on our bodies, it's a miracle they hold together and take care of themselves as well as they do."
The human body is the focus of "Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 3 & The Story of the Heart," on display at The Leonardo in Salt Lake City through mid-January.
The exhibit features real human bodies and organs that have been preserved through Plastination.
"The whole thrust of the exhibit is to make the human body, anatomy, accessible to laypeople ... so we also have information, and we become more involved in being really informed caretakers of our bodies," said Lisa Davis, a spokeswoman for The Leonardo.
Lungs
"Not to smoke" is what Heidi Savage said she learned from her visit to "Body Worlds 3."
"It's always very stark to see that kind of impact on the body, especially the deterioration in the lungs," said the Salt Lake City woman.
The exhibit may be just the push people need to quit, said Terry.
"When I sit with them in the exam room and say, 'You're turning your lungs black and destroying tissue,' they have a tendency to say, 'Really?' and then walk out and light up," she said.
But real bodies, not a picture on a page, make quite an impression, according to Dolan Weber, a student from Mont Harmon Junior High in Price, who was taking in the exhibit on a field trip.
"There's a couple of lungs -- smokers' lungs, and they're dark and black, and normal lungs from people who hadn't smoked, and they're clean and healthy," he said. "There's a slice of brain that had a tumor in it, and there was a big, black mass, so I definitely learned to stay away from that stuff."
The heart
There are a few versions of Body Worlds; the Salt Lake exhibit emphasizes the heart.
Cardiovascular disease kills around 3,000 people every day in the United States, according to Angelina Whalley, conceptual planner and creative designer of the exhibit.
"I thought it was really necessary to focus on that, and let people know what can they do to have a healthier lifestyle, a heart-healthy lifestyle, and to prevent cardiovascular disease and live longer," she said.
Displays show how arterial sclerosis develops, and what a heart attack looks like. Visitors can also see an enlarged heart.
A healthy woman's heart is about the size of her fist, said Terry. "Another woman, with congestive heart failure, her heart might be the size of three of our fists or larger."
It enlarges to compensate for becoming less efficient at pumping blood, but it's a dangerous condition.
"You can learn how to slow the progress down or even reverse it," said Whalley.
Her advice is nothing new -- eat right and get plenty of exercise. "Even small changes make a difference," she said. "If you, for instance, skip your Coke or these soft drinks which are really a lot of sugar and a lot of calories that you take in additionally, that you actually don't really need, that's really a lot that you can do to lower your body weight and to relieve your arteries."
The arteries aren't the only part of the body that will be relieved if you keep your weight down. The proof is in a cross section of a body that was overweight.
"When you see layers and layers of fat, and how much stress that puts on your body, you want to throw out the Cheetos and get on a treadmill," Davis said.
Injuries and illness
Many of the plastinated bodies are displayed in athletic poses, to show both the strength and weaknesses of the body.
"People will be there who are able to explain how the knee works, and it may be possible to demonstrate how you can have a knee injury playing football, or a hurt shoulder in baseball, by pointing out the various structures," said Terry.
That knowledge can lead to a higher level of respect for the body, and better preventive care, Davis said.
"My dad has knees that give him trouble, and early in life I hurt my knee," she said. "At physical therapy, she (the therapist) showed me how to build up my knees against this inherent weakness."
Terry Bikasis, a science teacher at Mont Harmon Junior High, said the exhibit reminded him to go to a doctor when things aren't going well.
"Sometimes we just ignore things," he said. "You don't ignore things!"
Change
According to Davis, a survey showed that 71 percent of the people who saw a Body Worlds exhibit were inspired to lead healthier lives.
"When you see real human beings in their full stature, and the magnificence of the human body, and you see the cause and effects of lifestyle choices, it's an experience you can't duplicate in any other way," she said. "It's an important experience for us to have, so we can be more informed and take our personal responsibility, when it comes to our bodies, more seriously -- we've only got one."
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