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  • Your body is made up of over 200 bones,

  • a few trillion microbes, and as many as 37 trillion cells.

  • And while death is often thought of as

  • the end of the line for your self,

  • your body still has a long way to go.

  • It doesn't take long before your body

  • starts to lose what makes you you.

  • Just a few minutes after death,

  • one of the first things to go is your brain.

  • You see, when your heart stops beating,

  • it halts blood flow, which is supposed to transport

  • oxygen to your organs and tissues.

  • So without blood, the most active,

  • oxygen-guzzling organs and tissues go first.

  • And the results are...moist.

  • Because the cells that make up those organs and tissues

  • are 70% water.

  • Without oxygen to keep them alive,

  • the cells self-destruct,

  • spilling all that fluid onto the coffin floor.

  • By that night, an even more troubling process begins

  • in the gut.

  • Your dying immune system can no longer contain

  • the trillions of hungry microbes that normally

  • help digest the food you eat.

  • So they escape.

  • First, they travel from the lower intestines

  • through your tissues, veins, and arteries.

  • Within hours, they reach your liver and gallbladder,

  • which contain a yellow-green bile meant for

  • breaking down fat when you're alive.

  • But after the microbes are through eating those organs,

  • that bile starts to flood the body,

  • staining it a yellow-green.

  • From about day two to four, the microbes are everywhere.

  • And they're producing toxic gases,

  • like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide,

  • which will expand and cause your body

  • to not only bloat, but stink.

  • After three or four months,

  • your yellow-green complexion has turned brownish-black

  • because your blood vessels have deteriorated

  • to the point that the iron inside them spills out,

  • becoming brownish-black as it oxidizes.

  • Also around this time,

  • the molecular structures that

  • hold your cells together break away,

  • so your tissues collapse into a watery mush.

  • And in a little over a year,

  • your cotton clothes disintegrate,

  • as acidic body fluids and toxins break them down.

  • Only the nylon seams and waistband survive.

  • At this point, nothing dramatic happens for a while.

  • But by a decade in, given enough moisture,

  • the wet, low-oxygen environment

  • sets off a chemical reaction

  • that turns the fat in your thighs and butt

  • to a soap-like substance called grave wax.

  • On the other hand, drier conditions lead to mummification.

  • That's right, you can mummify naturally.

  • No wrappings, chemicals,

  • or intimidating instruments required.

  • Because throughout this entire decomposition process,

  • water is evaporating through the thin skin

  • on your ears, nose, and eyelids, causing them to dry

  • out and turn black, aka mummify.

  • By 50 years in, your tissues will have liquefied

  • and disappeared, leaving behind mummified skin and tendons.

  • Eventually these too will disintegrate,

  • and after 80 years in that coffin,

  • your bones will crack as the soft collagen

  • inside them deteriorates,

  • leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind.

  • But even that shell won't last forever.

  • A century in, the last of your bones

  • will have collapsed into dust.

  • And only the most durable part of your body,

  • your teeth, will remain.

  • Teeth, grave wax, and some nylon threads.

Your body is made up of over 200 bones,

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