What Happens After You Die?

What Happens After You Die?

What Happens After You Die?

Death is an inevitable consequence of living, and someday we will all reach the end of the road, breath our final breath, and find ourselves six feet under. There are many theories on what happens afterward and where we end up, but one thing science can tell us for sure, is what happens to outbidders it just slowly decay away and become part of the earth, or do strange things continue to go on as if we were still alive? That’s what we’ll find out today, in this episode of The Infographics Show: Your Body After You Die. Most of us would rather not think about what happens to our bodies after we die. In the west, when someone dies, there is usually a traditional funeral so friends and family can say goodbye and get a sense of closure. A mortician will embalm the body as a way of slowing down the decomposition process, so that family members can remember their loved one as they once were. For some, the end is less dignified; a murderer might leave his victim’s body at the scene of the crime or bury them in a shallow grave, or someone may die alone and isn’t found for days or weeks.

When this happens and the body is discovered later, the decomposition process has already started making the mortician’s job much harder. So, what actually happens to our body when we die? Actually, the moment of death is not as instants we may think. Even if you stop breathing and your heart ceases to beat, it is now understood that the brain goes on living for some time after. A 2017 study by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, who measured brain activity after death, observed electroencephalographic recordings up to 5minutes after the body was declared dead. In the hospital setting, doctors define death under several circumstances. These include no pulse, which indicates the heart has stopped beating, stopping breathing, the absence of reflexes, and pupils not reacting in response to bright light. Just like you see in a TV crime show, when a detective walks up and shines a torch in the eyes of a dead person, to be sure they’re gone. The definition of brain death includes the neurologic criteria of unresponsiveness, an absence of brainstem reflexes, and an inability to breathe without a ventilator. So, when the lights are finally out, and you are actually gone, what happens to the body? Let’s first look at from death to 12 hours after death. Hour 1 - At the moment of death, all of the muscles in the body relax. This state is called primary flaccidity. The mouth often falls open, the eyelids relax, the pupils dilate, and the body is flexible. If an individual averages 80 beats per minute, that’s 4,800 beats per hour, 115,200 beats per day, and more than 42 million per year, which calculates to roughly 3 billion if you live to age 72. Within minutes of the heart-stopping, the blood stops flowing and a process called pallor Ortis causes skin color to lighten as the blood drains from the smaller veins under the skin surface. The body begins to cool from its normal temperature of 98.6° Fahrenheit (37° Celsius) and it continues to drop two degrees Celsius in the first hour; one degree each hour thereafter. As the muscles relax, urine and feces are also released from the body. Hours 2 to 6 - With no blood circulation, gravity begins to pull it to the areas of the body closest to the ground, a process known as livor multistate roughly 3 hours, chemical changes start to take place within the body's cells, and all of the muscles begin to stiffen. This process is known as rigor mortis, and the first muscles to enter this state are the eyelids, jaw, and the neck. Rigor mortis continues to spread through the whole face, down through the chest, the arms, and eventually the fingers and toes. In the old days, people would place coins on the eyelids. This tradition might also have originated from the desire to keep the eyes shut since rigor mortis affects the eyes soonest.

 However, there are other spiritually motivated theories, including one in Greek mythology where a god of the underworld was responsible for carrying the souls of the deceased over the river that separated life and death, sea coin was placed on the eyes to pay him for transportation. Hours 7 to 12 – Though rigor mortis will continue for up to 12 hours, from 7 hours onwards the limbs of the corpse will be difficult to move. The knees and elbows will be slightly flexed, and fingers or toes may appear unusually crooked. How extreme these factors are will depend on the age, physical condition, and gender of the person, as well as the air temperature, and other external factors. Hour 12 - After reaching maximum rigor multisite body begins to soften again as the process of rigor mortis wears off in the reverse ordering which it occurred, so from the fingers and toes, to the arms and legs, and then up through the chest and to the neck and face. This is due to more chemical changes within the cells and internal tissue. This process occurs gradually and will continue over one to three days, again influenced by external conditions such as temperature. After about 48 hours, all of the muscles will again relax, reaching a state known as secondary flaccidity. That’s the first 12 hours, but what if a body is left to decompose naturally for the next few days, weeks, or even months? Whilst doing our research, we came across the company, Aftermath Services, who can be called upon to clean up a dead body at a crime scene. Let’s see what these corpse-cleaning experts have to say: After a few days, leaked enzymes begin producing many gases, which cause the body to expand, sometimes as large as twice the usual size. If the corpse is out in the open, insects will start to investigate, including flies that lay eggs, later to become maggots that eat the flesh. And microorganisms and bacteria also produce extremely unpleasant odors called putrefaction. Next, all the soft parts of the body, including organs, muscles, and skin, become liquefied, and when all of the soft tissue has decomposed, bone, hair, cartilage, and other hard areas of decay remain. All that will be left at the end is the skeleton, which will usually take eight to twelve years to decompose, depending on the loss of organic and inorganic components. The body decay timeline goes like this:24 to 72 hours after death — the internal organs decompose.3-5 days after death — the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose.8-10 days after death — the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas. Several weeks after death — nails and teeth fall out.1 a month after death — the body starts deliquefies your body may be around for a long time after death, even as long as 12 years fora brittle skeleton. But in some situations, these rules don’t apply and the body can last a lot longer. This was the case in Wilms low, Cheshire, Northwest England, when on August 1st, 1984, when the preserved body of the so-called Lindeman was dug out of a peat bog by commercial peat-cutters. Peat is a type of soil that contains acids with pH levels similar to vinegar, which can conserve the human body in the same way fruits preserved in a pickling jar. It is thought that The Lindo Man met his death in the Lindo Moss, sometime between2 BC and 119 ADS, in either the Iron Age or Romano-British period. So, he may have lived around the time of Jesus. His body has been so well preserved for 2,000years that we know he was a healthy male who died in his mid-20s, was around 5 feet 7 inches tall (168 cm), and weighed 140 lbs. (63 kgs).Some people do not want to think about the changes in the body after death, whereas others wish to know ALL of the gruesome details. Everyone is different, and it is a very personal decision. So, can you add anything to the decomposition process we outlined above? Have you ever seen a dead body? Let us know in the comments! 

What Happens To You Just Before You Die

We’ve talked about what happens when you die, a very popular episode. Now we tackle a similar question: what happens just before you die? This question comes to us from Jody. As you may already know, we love answering questions from you, our beloved viewers! So, today, as per Jody’s request, we dare to venture deep into this subject in our quest to find out if your life really does flash before your eyes in your final moment. To begin with, we’ll start with what happens to you physically depending on how you die. Let’s first talk about drowning. This is a very uncomfortable death, characterized by an inability to breathe that leads to your demise underwater. What happens is that you struggle with your mouth below the surface. You panic and might begin to aspirate or inhale water. This leads to you having a laryngospasm, which happens when your vocal cords close and block airways in an attempt to protect your lungs. When this happens, you’re unable to scream for help. Thus, drowning is mostly a silent death. When not, enough oxygen reaches the body’s tissues, you then go through something known as hypoxia. You become unconscious and your airway relaxes which allows your lungs to fill up with water. Prolonged time without air can lead to cardiac arrest and brain damage before finally leading to death. This is not a good way to go so it is highly recommended that you wear a life vest if you don’t know how to swim. Either that or keep an inflatable pool toy under you. The unicorn floaty is all the rage right now. Get one with a cup holder while you’re at it so you can keep a martini on hand. Death by hypothermia, where the core body temperature drops to a dangerous level, causes you to shiver intensely. After extended exposure to the freezing temperatures, your body functions start to slow down, including your respiration, heart, and metabolic rates. You then lose consciousness before you die. An example of this type of death would include what happened to Jack in the movie Titanic. Spoiler alert, we saw him turn into a human popsicle before he sunk dramatically into the dark depths of the Atlantic. Rose let go of him at the moment after saying she wouldn’t. What’s up with that? We feel the need to add that Jack could have easily fit onto the door that was used as a raft. He just didn’t try hard enough. At any rate, you definitely wouldn’t want to perish in icy cold waters this way. It is not a fun way to go, especially if you hate the cold. On the opposite end of the spectrum, death by burning has to be a very horrifying way to meet your demise. Sometimes, when people were burned at the stake back in the dark ages, they would die from carbon monoxide poisoning before the flames completely consumed them. This happens when you breathe in too much carbon. It is definitely not a pleasant way to go. In fact, it is excruciatingly painful! Yet, carbon monoxide poisoning would have been considered a merciful death in comparison to feeling the fire melt away your flesh. The human body can burn for several hours but, if you’re lucky, you’re already dead by the time the dermis cracks. The dermis, in case you didn’t know, is the thick layer of skin under the epidermis, which is the thin outer layer of your skin. Sometimes burns can cause so much damage to your nerves that you are no longer able to detect pain. More than likely, however, you’re already dead before you can recognize that you don’t feel pain anymore. The initial agony of being burned alive can also be so intense that some people may die of primary shock when blood pressure drops so low that vital organs can no longer function. Suffocation from the fumes and heatstroke can also result in death before the actual flames do the job. With heatstroke, your brain and other vital organs swell, which can be fatal if left untreated. Now, that we’ve covered some of the extreme, horrific, morbid aspects of physical causes of death and what happens to the body before dying, let’s explore what may happen mentally before you die. We mean, aside from the obvious panic you might experience if you are aware of what is happening to you. This is a big topic because there are a lot of strange and abnormal things people claim to have happened in the moments just before death. Neurologist, Dr. Cameron Shaw, believes he knows exactly what happens to us 30 seconds before we meet the grim reaper. He dissected a woman’s brain to find out what was going on immediately before she died. What he found was chilling. First, he says, we lose our sense of self. This is reported because the brain tends to die from the top down and blood supply is gathered from underneath. Thus, the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for cognition, planning, personality, decision-making, and moderating social behavior loses blood first as the brain drains. This implies that our sense of self, sense of humor, and our ability to think ahead all dissipates within the first 10 to 20 seconds out of the 30-second countdown to death. Then, Dr. Shaw explains, “as the wave of blood-starved brain cells spread out, our memories and language centers short out, until we’re left with just a core. “By this point, you have no awareness of what is happening. Not to be overly grim but you basically shut down, go blank, fall into the dark pit of nothingness, whatever you prefer to call it’d. Shaw says that you do see a white light at the end of a tunnel before you die but not necessarily because you’re drifting into heaven. We hate to break it to you, but Dr. Shaw says this happens when the sudden loss of blood supply to the brain causes tunnel vision. The first thing that is noticed is a feeling of being faint, as well as the narrowing of your vision, which is followed by ominous or peaceful darkness, depending on how you perceive it. But it all has to do with the loss of blood to your head. Shaw also explains the concept of the “out-of-body” experience, which many people have claimed to have been through during life-threatening, near-death experiences. This is said to happen when people perceive themselves to be floating through the air like a spirit, ghost, or apparition. They see objects in another room or the tops of people’s heads from an aerial viewed. Shaw says that this is just a trick of the mind and that it is not real. He claims that the out-of-body experiences little more than a myth. He says, quote, “the brain can create a visual world around you that resembles something close to reality that isn’t real because you’re actually blind. 

“What we think he means by this is that you are blind to your surroundings while in this state of mind because you are basically unconscious. Some people who have experienced the out-of-body sensation, however, will continue to assert that this was very real to them. Many will jump to its defense. Now, what about the question regarding whether your life flashes before your eyes? You may be interested to know that yes, indeed it does but not in the way you think. What we mean to say is, you won’t visualize yourself as a baby and watch yourself groupie doesn’t happen chronologically like in the movies. You’ll simply witness key memories randomly based on importance and which events sparked the greatest emotion for you. In the final moments, you will think about the most notable or prominent moments of oubliette most memorable aspects of your existence pop into your thoughts; Your first kiss, graduation, holidays with your family, the day you got married to your spouse, the day your first child was born, and more. Some people who have experienced this near-death occurrence say that many memories were packed into a short period. Some have even gone so far to say that it felt like centuries had passed while they were witnessing the memories of their lives play out by before them like a movie across the screen. One person claimed to be able to actually feel what friends and family members felt through each memory. The same person was quoted in an article in The Sun saying, “I was allowed to see that part of them and feel for myself what they felt. “In essence, empathy for others was said to be directly experienced during this ordeal. Perhaps this was to teach a life lesson about consideration for others? Philosophically, we can only speculate. Now, Dr. Cameron Shaw is not the first or the last professional to study what happens before you die and, if you watched our video called, Did Scientists Really Find A Way to Bring the Dead Back to Life? Then you may have learned that a study on pig brains revealed that the organ can continue to function cellularly after pronounced clinical death. This means that it is theoretically possible to be partially dead or partially alive. Creepy! In all likelihood, however, you are not conscious enough to realize that you are somewhat dead. For those who have ever been around someone with a terminal illness in their final moments of life, often it is said that a loss of consciousnesses the first physical change to occur. Still, even while unconscious, the person might be able to hear or feel you. After consciousness goes, there may be changes to the skin where it becomes slightly blue in color. Breathing may become loud as mucus builds up in the throat. As the end draws nearer, shallow breathing may stop and start again between breaths. This is known as Cheyne Stokes breathing. It can last for a short or long time before finally stopping entirely. During the bodily transition to death, itis likely that you are not distressed or in pain because you are not aware that you are dying. For this reason, many believe the changeovers relatively peaceful because, as the common saying goes, “ignorance is bliss. “Some people choose when and where to die and can hang on a little longer until loved one arrives at their bedside. Others may not be so lucky and may be unable to control when they go. Many people often feel guilty for not being there at the precise moment when their love done passed. They might feel like they let the person down by missing the crucial moment. It might be of comfort to know that the person was probably not aware of your absence when they passed. Still, if friends and family members are distressed by the passing of their loved one, they are usually referred to consult with a bereavement counselor who is trained in helping people who are undergoing these exact situations.