If you ’ve spend any amount of time on the net , you may be under the mental picture that remains can pass wind . And while that seems like something your 14 - twelvemonth - old nephew might partake just for the shock value , it ’s actually true . The bacteria in the intestinal tract creditworthy for turgidity do n’t die off just because the body is no longer in surgical operation . And because our sphincters loosen post - mortem , even just repositioning a body can coerce out trap petrol .
But there are plenty of real misconception about last . We ’ll exhume a few of them below , adapted from an episode ofMisconceptionson Youtube .
1. Misconception: Your fingernails keep growing after death.
It ’s one of thosefactoidsthat gets come about around : Every so often yourfingernailsand even yourhaircontinue to grow after your death .
Sorry , but you will not be needing a manicure during your grunge sleep . While some argue that it ’s technicallypossiblefor nail and hairsbreadth to grow a bantam bit after death because cutis jail cell do n’t need as much oxygen as other organs , you ’re not run to stock claws or a luxurious mane . Nailsneedglucose to turn , and without it , you ’re in no motivation of clippers .
This myth is likely root in the fact that , after death , the hide begins to constrain and shrivel due to dehydration . That change can cause nail toappearto grow . Facial stubble can also seem to stupefy out more , but it ’s because the skin is dry out out , not because follicles are germinate .
2. Misconception: Dying in your sleep is always peaceful.
Hopefully , when it ’s your time to go , it wo n’t be due to abear maulingor amurder hornetattack . Some citizenry think the most peaceful way is to expire is in your rest . But that may be a euphemism for less - slumbrous circumstances , especially if the cause of end was something the class of the deceased wishes to keep private .
A heart arrhythmia or brain aneurysm may prompt a fairly painless death while drowse , but there are other , more grisly causes .
It’spossiblea person suffering from a heart attack or other catastrophic physical structure nonstarter will wake up before dying , yield them a few terrific moments of clearness and physical discomfort before lead to parts unknown . Evidence of these unpeaceful moment might be sheets fold up around the deceased or otherwise disturb , indicating distress .
That ’s not to say a tranquil passing is always an illusion , but it ’s not secure .
3. Misconception: Dead bodies are a health hazard.
If you ever find yourself stand around an unidentified clay , you might block to consider whether being near to a dead dead body could be harmful . What if they post disease ? flea ? Fungus ?
No want to occupy . The International Committee of the Red Crosshas saidthat stagnant dead body are a “ trifling wellness risk of exposure . ” That does n’t meanzero — it ’s theoretically potential for someone like an financial aid worker who is directly handling the body to squeeze hepatitis or tuberculosis , but only for a few days after the physical structure expires , at most . Any longer and you ’re not likely to contract anything .
The World Health Organization concur , say that bodies“only stick a substantial risk to wellness in a few special grammatical case , such as deaths from Asiatic cholera or haemorrhagic fevers . ”
And the prophylactic expert at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration , or OSHA , also have an thought [ PDF ] : “ There is no direct risk of infection or infectious disease from being near human remains for those who are not at once involved in recovery or other efforts that require manage the remains … Viruses associated with human remains ( e.g. , hepatitis B and C , HIV , various bacterium , etc . ) do not pose a risk to someone walking nearby , nor do they get significant environmental contamination . ”
4. Misconception: Cremation turns you into ash.
Cremation is an likeable option for those who are afraid of feel claustrophobic for all of eternity . You in all likelihood assume that the process involves placing the body into a furnace and heating it up until it ’s apileof powdery soot . But that ’s not the whole narration .
When your soundbox is deliver to a crematory , it ’s placed in an oven and heated to around 1100 ° F . The lead product is not exactly a hunky-dory ash tree quick to be wistfully scattered into the ocean . Cremation leave residual bone fragment that necessitate to be mechanically pulverize . Before that step , the stiff reckon less like gunpowder and more like crushed rock .
And because we know you ’re wondering — no , it ’s not recommended that anyone with a medical equipment or implants be cremated without the foreign objects being removed prior to the cremation . Something like breast implant might even cause environmental harm when burned .
5. Misconception: All funerals are expensive.
Saying goodbye to the dear go away can sometimes intend saying bye to your holiday fund . Accordingto the National Funeral Directors Association , the average cost of a farewell ceremony is over $ 7000 . But celebrating a life does n’t have to intend taking out a small loanword .
Cremating a body is importantly less expensive than embalming and burying one , and it saves you large on caskets , which average out around $ 2400 and can go for up to $ 10,000 .
And while you may opt for a expectant and potentially expensive bash at a funeral plate , some states reserve you to carry the organic structure and obtain a death certificate yourself . Instead of using the funeral home ’s facilities , you could prefer for visitation or a viewing at a private residency or perhaps even a lieu of worship . Some multitude even decide to make a loved one ’s leaving a festive event by have a barbeque . Bottom line ? you may honor the lately - passed without plunging into debt . You just need some creative intellection — and possibly a midsized sedan chair .
6. Misconception: Hospice care is only for the dying.
When we suppose of hospice concern , we generally associate it with final stage - of - life story arrangements and making someone comfortable before they pass . Some peopleuse the termpalliative careto lessen the accent associated with the term .
But hospice is n’t always synonymous with the ending of life . patient arecandidates for hospicewhen their sickness is incurable but not needfully imminently fateful . And while some hospice curriculum may require a diagnosis expecting the patient to not go beyond six months , that does n’t always mean they wo n’t . In fact , thanks to specialized maintenance , hospice patient may wander up live longer than if they were receiving other kinds of care . It ’s really even possible to flunk out of hospice because a doc no longer believe a person ’s chance of die is sufficiently high enough to keep them there .
Even if you suppose the worst about hospice , moot this . This specialised care — which can be administered at family , not just at intervention centers — also places a focussing on supporting screw I and offer dick to help them cope with end - of - life takings . It ’s as much for the livelihood as the possibly - presently - to - be departed . Of course , determination about hospice or any other variety of medical care should be made by you in concert with medical professionals — not someone on the internet .
7. Misconception: 35-year-olds were senior citizens in the past.
There ’s no interrogative sentence that advance in medication havesaved multitude from diseasesand other ill that would have wreck them centuries ago . But we might get a small cocky , at time , about how smart we modern human being are . Sometimes we chuckle about those poor the great unwashed in the Middle Ages whose “ medium life story couple ” topped out in the thirties .
But here ’s the secret behind those short life expectancy of the olden days : They were base on averages and skew by calamity . fit in to theBBC , our concept of “ ordinary life expectancies ” in the past is colored by high childhood deathrate rates . Imagine you had two siblings : one died as a 1 - year - onetime and one at the years of 70 . You ’d get an average sibling life expectancy of 35 . When you hit your 34th birthday , though , you probably would n’t feel like you were on death ’s door .
If you apply the same averaging method acting to a declamatory population and get the same mean age of death , it does n’t inevitably mean that everyone in that population was dropping dead at 35 . A 1994 study of ancient Grecian and Roman adult male found that people cite in the Oxford Classical Dictionary who were born before 100 BCE lived to a median age of 72 years . That ’s not far off from the 75 years of modern American males . [ PDF ] .
Another studyof people — specifically , their teeth — born between 475 and 625 CE found that it was n’t strange to live into one ’s seventy . The human body has long been capable of aging normally . The problem was all the battles and terrible aesculapian care , not premature “ old years . ”
There are some caveats , however . In the past , poorer hoi polloi run to have licitly shorter life brace due to the hard labor they performed . So did woman , who faced untreatable pregnancy complications that man did n’t have to deal with . But in term of the aging mental process itself , people in the past defend up relatively well .
8. Misconception: You lose exactly 21 grams of weight when you die.
Of all the misunderstandings fence in expiry , there ’s one that stands out as the most mysterious : that a human trunk will lose a precise amount of weight at the precise moment of expiration — a sum of 21 grams . Some citizenry believe it ’s the weight of the individual leaving its physical host to go on to live an ethereal universe elsewhere .
The idea come in from a doctor named Duncan MacDougall . In the early 20th centuryhe convincedsix terminally ill patients , four of whom were suffering from tuberculosis , to rest — and eventually expire — on bed that were arrange on scales . He measured system of weights loss in the time run up to death and then look for a notable increase in weighting release at the moment of death .
But of the six patient role , only the first one lost 21 grams ( actually , three - fourths of an troy ounce , because MacDougall did n’t apply the metrical system ) . Without get wholly bogged down in the item , there ’s grounds that it was more like 24 g .
So what about the other five subjects ? allot to MacDougall ’s report , one was n’t useful because “ the scales were not finely aline and there was a good deal of interference by people opposed to our work . ” Another perish before the beam could be adjusted , so their data was also of no utilization . The others lost motley amounts of free weight .
The findings caused quite a stir , with scientists contend that things like sweat , bodily fluids , and other excretion made precise measuring of the body after destruction difficult if not unacceptable . But MacDougall curse he account for variables .
Today it ’s universally agree that the sample size was too small and the results too inconsistent to draw any ratiocination . critic have offer up anumber of possible explanationsfor MacDougall ’s results , from incorrect measurements to outright fraud .
For his part , MacDougall did monish against making too much of his supposed results , write , “ I am aware that a large number of experiment would demand to be made before the thing can be proven beyond any possibility of misplay , but if further and sufficient experimentation proves that there is a release of gist occurring at demise and not accounted for by known channels of departure , the establishment of such a truth can not fail to be of the furthest grandness . ”
To appointment , no such substantiation has been found . It seems the weight of a soul departing the body is yet to be shape .
