THINGS THAT HAPPEN TO YOUR BODY AFTER YOU DIE

THE HEART STOPS BEATING AND BLOOD POOLS

The moment the heart stops beating is what doctors officially

regard as the time of death. Once it stops, the rest of the

body begins to die, albeit at different rates. With the heart no

longer pumping, the first thing to happen in the process

of death is that our blood stops flowing and pools

wherever it is in our veins and arteries.

OUR BODIES CHANGE COLOUR

With our blood suddenly non-mobile, our bodies begin to change

colour. Part of our bodies change to purplish-red or

bluish-purple because the blood settles, due to gravity,

in the lowest part of our bodies. Other parts turn deathly

pale, since the blood (reduced haemoglobin, to be exact)

is less concentrated or more drained in those areas.

LIVOR MORTIS HELPS FORENSICS SOLVE CASES

Forensic investigators can use this phenomenon, known as

livor mortis, to tell if a body has been moved since death

because after death our blood congeals in our blood vessels,

like a layer of fat which congeals on top of homemade

stock or fried foods.

ALGOR MORTIS COOLS THE BODY TEMPERATURE

The second most popular form of mortis, algor mortis is next

thing that happens to our bodies when we die. Known as

“death chill”, our bodies lose their 98.6°F (37°C) warmth and

slowly acclimate to the ambient room temperature, losing

about 1.5°F (0.8°C) per hour.

RIGOR MORTIS SETS IN

The better-known rigor mortis does not happen until a few hours

after the moment of death. The process starts with the eyelids

and neck muscles, followed by the entire body, stiffening up

due to the depletion of ATP (adenosine triphosphate): the

chemical responsible for relaxing muscle fibres after a contraction.

OUR BODIES CAN TWITCH

In what must have scared earlier peoples and made them believe

in the undead, our bodies can twitch and flex for hours after

death. As muscle tissues die, they can contract. If enough

contract, a visible muscle twitch or reflex can be seen, making

it seem like the corpse is trying to regain consciousness.

THE SKIN ON OUR FACE FLATTENS OUT

In a bizarre perk for Botox-loving people everywhere, our faces

get an immediate free-injection of Botox when we die.

Well, not exactly Botox, but since our muscles are no longer

contracting, the wrinkles on our faces mostly disappear.

OUR HAIR AND NAILS DON'T KEEP GROWING

A commonly-held myth states that our hair and nails continue

growing after death. In fact, after our bodies die, our skin loses

moisture, causing the skin on our entire body to shrink. The

shrinkage exposes more of our nail cuticles and hair

follicles, making them appear longer.

WE VOID OUR BOWELS

Commonly joked about on sitcoms, this fact does actually

happens to our bodies when we die. As rigor mortis is

affecting most of the body, some parts (sphincters, more

accurately) are being loosened. Since the brain keeps

our bodies’ sphincters closed as part of its regulation of

involuntary functions, when the brain shuts down, the

sphincters open, leading a corpse to rid itself of urine

or faeces left in the body.