January 2005, Channel 4 in the UK broadcast a unique piece of event. It was the first television airing of a real and spontaneous demonstration of human anatomy. The beauty and intricacy of the human body is laid bare in a sophisticated modern version of a tradition that extends back to the middle ages and beyond. It was aired on SBS TV in July 2006, and attracted lots of controversy. Now released in Australia on a double DVD. This DVD features live dissections of human body. Your anatomical guides will be Dr Gunther von Hagens who dissects the bodies and pathologist Professor John Lee who explains how they work in health and in disease.

This double DVD is divided into 4 sections:

• Movement
  Demonstration of muscles, skin, tendons, bone and the nervous system.
• Circulation
  Revealing the workings of the respiratory and circulatory systems.
• Digestion
  Exploring the function of the organs that digest our food.
• Reproduction
  Dissection of the reproductive systems of a man and a woman

Note: This DVD is Pal format, used in Australia, Asia, UK & NZ. For other countries (US) it can only be played on computers & Laptops.

Format: Pal; All regions; Running Time: 200 mins.

Anatomy is not a scientific theory or a political fashion. It doesn’t change from year to year and its position as the bedrock on which modern medicine has been built doesn’t alter. It is, quite simply, the study of the way we are made.

Human anatomy is worth studying for its own intrinsic beauty and interest. But the possessor of anatomical knowledge will also be able to understand some of the ways in which the body works (physiology) and some of the ways in which it can go wrong (pathology).

Without anatomical knowledge, there is much about health and disease which is incomprehensible. But even a basic anatomical understanding helps us makes sense of many strange phenomena. What happens when we choke? Why do we breathe in and out? Why does the heart beat? Why can a bang on the head knock us out? Why can’t you feel your kidneys? Why do you bleed when cut? Where do babies come from? And in disease, anatomy makes sense of questions such as why a tumour in the oesophagus can cause a cough, why a stomach ulcer can be fatal and why hip fractures are so common in elderly people.

Simple answers to these and a myriad other questions began to appear with anatomical understanding. From those simple answers came further questions, and eventually, in just a few hundred years, the astonishingly detailed picture of human life that modern medicine now possesses emerged.

http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/A/anatomy/

Plastinated human by Gunther Von Hagens is shown in the new James Bond movie Casino Royale.

Feature:

• * Four episodes explaining movement, circulation, digestion and reproduction, each centering on a live public autopsy.
• * The Anatomists: Gunther von Hagens, A Modern Frankenstein. A 50 minute documentary on the controversial Body Worlds exhibition and public autopsy, tracing the history of anatomy, the depiction of the body in art and the use of dissection to entertain as well as to further medical science.

This series is the first ever televised human dissections. In front of a live audience at the Heidelberg Institute of Plastination, including future body donors, von Hagens focuses on a different set of anatomical systems: movement, circulation, digestion and reproduction. Anatomy For Beginners is confronting, shocking, fascinating but above all truly revealing television that demystifies the makeup and workings of the human body. This is the real Fantastic Voyage!

Movement (50 mins):

IThe body was opened to reveal the muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones that interact to make up the mechanics of movement. Also revealed were the brain and spinal cord that drive and coordinate movement along with peripheral nerves that convey instructions from the central controllers to the muscles. Definitely a must see for bodyworkers. This part explains: 1. About the dissection 2. Skin, muscle, tendons and bone 3. The nervous system 4. Diseases of skin, nerves and muscles 5. Diseases of bone, joints and tendon

Circulation (50 mins):

Two interrelated systems were revealed: the lungs or respiratory system, and the heart and blood vessels or circulatory system. Both systems are involved in oxygen metabolism.This part explains: The lungs, the heart, blood vessels, diseases of the lung, diseases of th eheart.

Digestion (50 mins):

This demonstration uncovered the organs that carry food through the body, from the mouth to the anus, taking in various different portions of the digestive tract (also know as the gut or intestine). It also revealed the organs that support the gut in digesting food, like the liver and pancreas, together with those that help remove waste products from the body fluids, like the kidneys. This part contains: Mouth to stomach, stomach to anus, diseases of digestive tract, and diseases of the digestive organs.

Reproduction (50 mins):

Dr von Hagens revealed the organs that carry a sperm from its origin in the testis, through many metres of convoluted tubing and into the female genital tract. The dissection, especially of the male genital tract, is challenging because many of the tubes are small and hidden within the bony walls of the pelvis. The dissection involved cutting through the bones of the pelvis in just the right place to keep the relevant organs in tact. This part explains: male reproductive organs, female reproductive organs, diseases of male reproduction and diseases of female reproduction.

He has brought these specimens together in the travelling Body Worlds exhibition, with the aim of allowing ordinary people to see the wonders of anatomy for themselves. That people are interested in the subject is attested by the 15 million worldwide that have visited the exhibitions. It is exhibited in Australia under The Amazing Human Body.

See also article on Body Worlds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds