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LIVING LONG: THE QUEST FOR IMMORTALITYLegend has it that young James J. Kilroy was like any other working stiff in the 1940s, loading freight ships day in and day out. Then one day he had a flash of how he could be just a little bit more. Chunk of white chalk in hand, he scrawled, “Kilroy was here” on a mother lode of crates full of blue jeans waiting to sail to harbors across the globe. When that slogan- generally accompanied by a face peeking over a wall-started popping up around the country, including such inaccessible places as the Statue of Liberty’s torch, the once-anonymous Kilroy achieved immortality. “We all have a little Kilroy in us,” says Dr. Walter M. Bortz II of Stanford University School of Medicine. “We want to leave a legacy to show we were here. We have an inherent want for immortality. And that’s a healthy thing.” There are a whole lot better ways to have your name live on than etching your John Hancock on a bathroom wall. Many can actually leave the world a better place. Others are just plain fun. So strap on some of these suggestions and rocket into eternity. Sign a donor card. “The absolute best way for anyone to live on after their death is to make an organ, tissue, or whole-body donation,” says Dr. Kenneth V. Iserson of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “There is a dearth of organ donors in this country, and the need for transplantable organs and tissues is enormous-and getting bigger.” The number of people who have died while waiting for available organs has increased more than 2 1/2 times during the past eight years, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing in Richmond, Virginia. And every 16 minutes, a new person is added to the national transplant waiting list. Donor families consistently report that they feel their loved one is living on in someone else through their organ donation. Considering that about 25 different organs and tissues are transplantable, that’s a lot of immortality. You can get a donor card from a local or regional organ or tissue bank, or you can fill out a donor card when you renew your driver’s license. Even if you have the sticker on your driver’s license, doctors most likely will still check with your family before donating your organs. Make a carbon copy. Though God knows it shouldn’t be your only motivation, one of the benefits of having children is that you leave behind a living legacy. Your kids will not only carry on your tale about that 36-inch walleye you reeled in last summer but also pass on the only part of you that is truly immortal-your genes. “The bottom line in life is that for a species that reproduces sexually, immortality has already been achieved through its genes,” says Dr. S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Chicago. If you should decide to reproduce, you want to be sure that you’re passing along healthy, undamaged genes. You can help protect those mighty little mailmen of immortality by not smoking and by getting plenty of vitamin C, say experts. Studies show that nicotine damages sperm and reduces sperm count. Vitamin C, on the other hand, has been shown to protect the little guys from free-radical damage. *31/36/5* Related Posts:Tags: General Health Leave OneYou must be logged in to post a comment. Comments
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