In 1967, the first human heart was transplanted by Dr. Christiaan Barnard. A year later, science-fiction writer Larry Niven imagined organized bands of criminal “organleggers” trafficking in stolen body parts. While organ trafficking already appears to be an extremely rare but nevertheless real crime, we are still far from the sort of super-replaceable human body that Niven imagined, which organ purchases were common for even such minor cosmetic defects as male pattern baldness. And while we have made great strides in transplants and prosthesis in the last 44 years — and may at some point be able to regenerate organs — replacement parts for a human body are not yet readily purchasable in the same way that you can pick up a Chevy Tahoe body kit for the damaged exterior of your SUV.
This means that we are still personally responsible for protecting all of our body parts and organs. Nevertheless, most of us essentially ignore routine health warnings about the dangers of poor eating habits and lack of exercise. If we are morbidly obese or addicted to substances such as alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, we may take such warnings even less seriously, especially if we happen to know an elderly smoker, alcoholic, addict, or extremely overweight person. Still, if you know many elderly people well, you may also be familiar with the tragic reality behind the famous quote by baseball legend Mickey Mantle. “If I’d known I was gonna live this long, I’d have taken a lot better care of myself.” Before he finally stopped drinking in 1993, the great switch hitter’s long battle with alcoholism left him with a liver so badly damaged he was the subject of a controversial and less than successful transplant before his death in 1995.
Mantle’s story is perhaps more dramatic than usual today because he actually did pass away at the relatively early age of 64. The fact of the matter is that, had he lived, his later years would have been badly marred by serious health issues. It’s hard to imagine in your twenties or thirties the potential results of such chronic but increasingly common chronic ailments as Type II diabetes and hypertension.
Most of us don’t realize how frequently these illnesses result in end-stage kidney disease and even fewer of us have ever had the experience of escorting an elderly parent, who is definitely not a candidate for a kidney transplant, into a soul-killingly drab dialysis clinic for tiring three-times weekly sessions lasting three or more hours. In other words, until such time as you really can replace a kidney, a liver, or a busted hip bone as easily as hiring a mechanic to install a Tahoe body kit on your dented van, the price for not paying proper attention to protecting our bodies from harm caused by all kinds of careless behavior, is not necessarily death, but a life few of us would want to lead. What many alcoholics belatedly realize is that treating alcohol addictions is so much harder than actually preventing them in the first place.