TO ENTERTAINMENT, HEALTH/MEDICAL AND RADIO-TELEVISION EDITORS:Discovery Health Channel Explores Strange Phenomena Linked to Organ Transplant in TRANSPLANTING MEMORIES Premieres Saturday, July 19 at 9:00 PM EST on the Discovery Health Channel Silver Spring, MD June 25 / PRNewswire. Going into surgery Debbie Vega never imagined she would wake up with more than a liver. Neither did many other transplant recipients whose new organs were accompanied by foreign memories, their personal preferences and unexplained emerging talents. TRANSPLANTING MEMORIES will explore such phenomena firsthand through the stories of organ donor recipients on Saturday, July 19, at 9:00 PM EST on the Discovery Health Channel. In TRANSPLANTING MEMORIES, prominent medical experts attempt to explain why some organ recipients adopt these memories and emotions, also known as "cellular memories". While a handful of scientists are skeptical dismissing this strange phenomena as post-surgery stress or reaction to anti-organ rejection drugs -- they are also countered by a growing number of experts who believe cellular memories are indeed transplanted with organs. Dr. Candace Pert, a pharmacologist and professor at Georgetown University believes the mind is not just in the brain, but also throughout the body. This school of thought could explain such strange transplant experiences. "The mind and body communicate with each other through chemicals known as peptides", says Dr. Pert. "These peptides are found in the brain as well as in the stomach, muscles and all of our major organs. I believe that memory can be accessed anywhere in the peptide/receptor network. For instance, a memory associated with food may be linked to the pancreas or liver and such associations can be transplanted from one person to another". Other medical experts offer different explanations, and opine that it is not so much mystical as it is science, and a science that needs further exploration. In TRANSPLANTING MEMORIES, viewers will see just how these phenomena manifest in organ recipients: an eight-year-old girl receives a heart of a murdered 10 year-old girl and her nightmares help solve the murder, a shy, reserved woman becomes more assertive and has vivid dreams of the donor she never met, and a man strangely picks up his donor's musical taste. Organ transplantation is one of the greatest scientific accomplishments of the twentieth century, with more than 500,000 successful cases worldwide. TRANSPLANTING MEMORIES discusses the theory supporting why a surprising number of transplant individuals receive something more than just the organ. TRANSPLANTING MEMORIES is a co-production of Discovery Health Channel and Natural History New Zealand, Limited. Peter Hayden is executive producer for Natural History New Zealand, Limited. For Discovery Health Channel, the executive producer is Mark Poertner. Bob Reid is executive in charge of production. Discovery Health Channel takes viewers inside the fascinating and informative world of health and medicine to experience firsthand compelling, real-life stories of medical breakthroughs and human triumphs. Currently in 43 million homes, Discovery Health Channel is the only 24-hour network and website (discovery.com/health) devoted to what matters most -- your health. Source Discovery Health Channel - 6/25/2003 NOTE TO EDITORS: Artwork for Transplanting Memories can be found by visiting the Discovery Health Channel's press website at www.press.discovery.com CONTACT: Tahli Kouperstein of the Discovery Health Channel (240) 662-2221 or tahli-koupersteindiscovery.com Websites: http://www.discovery.com/health http://www.discovery.com http://www.press.discovery.com CO: Discovery Health Channel ST: Maryland |