This process is the same for all people, but it is less immediately noticeable on people with darker skin. Meanwhile, the body cools down, and the temperature drops by about 1.5 °F (0.84 °C) per hour. But even when the body cools, it is still full of life. (Scientists compare a decomposing body to an ecosystem.
Autolysis, which begins to upset the inside of the stomach. This is also called self-digestion. The enzymes begin to digest the membranes of oxygen-deprived cells. Damaged blood cells rapidly burst out of their ruptured vessels. When they settle in capillaries and other small blood vessels, they trigger a color change on the skin’s surface.
Although this color change (including a purplish blue color and red spots) begins about an hour after death, it usually does not appear until several hours later. Such changes after death are almost infrequent. When the body is alive, filaments composed mainly of actin and myosin proteins interact.
Muscles attach or release from one another to contract or relax. This makes body movement possible. In death, chemical bridges between actin and myosin slowly form. So muscles contract and stay that way until the bridges break.
This stiffness, known as rigor mortis, occurs about two to six hours after death. Rigor mortis increases the difficulty of performing an autopsy or preparing the body for cremation because the body loses the flexibility it had during life.
Published at : 20 Sep 2024 05:05 PM (IST)
