Human Decomposition - What Happens To Your Body After You Die?

Have you ever thought about what actually happens to your body after you have died?  I have.

Now, in a way, I wish I didn't know. 

First, your eyes bug out then your body starts to stiffen, your muscles become rock hard. Sounds good doesn't it? I've always wanted to have a rock hard body. I've worked to achieve one most of my life but was never successful.

Actually it's called Rigor Mortis, and it's not exactly the same as the rock hard body that you might see at the gym. This happens because your muscles are being deprived of (ATP) adenosine triphosphate, which enable your muscles to relax...

Minutes after you have taken your last breath, yours cells stop producing ATP, so all your muscles, the ones in your face, smiling, or not, your arms bent at the wrist or the elbow, your neck twisted this way or that, they all stay in that same position of contraction or relaxation after you die and Rigor Mortis has set in, which stiffens them and they become rock hard. Of course it takes a little bit of time for all this to happen, eye lids are about the first and then other small muscles like what's in your face 2-4 hours, your abs and biceps, 4-12 hours, depending on outside influences like temperature, dampness etc. etc. 

If you were murdered, forensic specialists could tell just by this feature alone, called livor mortis, whether your body had been moved after death. Amazing isn't it, something so simple, where the blood first gets rigor mortis, then if that is disturbed it turns into Livor mortis and sets again.

If you froze to death, algor mortis sets in, known as the 'Death Chill.' Your body looses about a degree and a half  every hour until you've become room temperature.

But...Moments just moments after your last breath, everyone relaxes. That might not be too pleasant either. You're soooo, relaxed you shit and piss yourself. There's no stopping the flow, but it's an easy flow, remember your muscles are dead and the ones you use today to expel waste won't be working. You'll slowly leak out all over. And depending on the position you're in, not a pretty sight, as you might imagine. It's short, only lasts until rigor mortis sets in.

Damn, if you could only hold it.

You might make strange noises. Girgling sounds, moans. Nothing coherent, it's just air being expelled from the lungs breezing over your vocal cords.

Your blood starts to pool and depending on your position Gravity takes over. Let's hope your not standing on your head at the time. It's not a pretty sight either. 

All that bacteria we use in our guts to digest food, well they just love you, giving them full reign of your body. They soon spread out to all the other parts.  Your body becomes the bacteria's smorg and you start to smell. And I mean smell! You could explode from all the gases. Putrefaction takes place, inside you're one big ball of goo, slime, a mess.

They say your hair and your teeth and nails continue to grow, but that's an old wives tale. The cuticle and your gums recede revealing more of the tooth, the nails and the hair. They just seem as if they grow.

There's some good things that happen, it's not all doom and gloom, your wrinkles disappear, you might look years younger as you puff up. We've all heard people say as they view someone in a casket, "She's never looked better."

I tried to warn you, that you don't need to know but you just had to read further, I tried but did you listen, eh?