I 23(f) have lost two close friends in horrific circumstances over the last few years. Can anyone explain to me why bodies,
particularly faces, looks so different after death – is it because they’ve been embalmed, or is it the human brain not being able to process what they’re seeing infront of them? Apologies if this is too gruesome for this sub, i think this might be me grieving and just trying to find some way to understand why.
In: Biology
this is weird but i actually appreciate dead folks not looking like themselves. it helps me realize that they’re no longer in their body. (i’m not particularly religious)
Well, this is an interesting topic. Let’s look at what happens after death.
Once the body dies, the heart stops, and blood stops circulating, there’s no more oxygen getting to the body parts and waste isn’t being removed anymore. This causes a process called “autolysis”, or self-digestion, beginning at the moment of death. Excess carbon dioxide in the body causes an acidic environment, making the membranes in the cells rupture. These membranes release enzymes inside the cells that begin eating the cells from the inside out.
Rigor mortis, occurring 2-36 hours after death, causes the stiffening of muscles. Small blisters filled with nutrient-rich fluid appear on internal organs and the surface of the skin, causing it to have a shiny look, and the skin begins to loosen.
Livor mortis and algor mortis come next. Livor mortis becomes fixed 8-12 hours after death. This is when the blood isn’t moving and settles in the lowest point of the body, usually the back or stomach, causing reddish-purple discoloration.
Algor mortis is the stage of cold. Without the blood pumping and the body generating heat, it loses about 3-4 degrees of heat in the first hour, and 2 degrees of heat every hour after that in normal conditions. This stage ends 24-48 hours after death.
After four days, putrefaction starts and the body begins to rot.
Embalming replaces the blood in the body with chemicals to stop or slow down these processes, which is needed for modern funerals. “He looks so natural, doesn’t he?” No, he doesn’t. He’s been dead for one to two weeks. If he looked natural, he’d look like a zombie.
Muscle tone, fluid buildup or loss, embalming fluid. Some is it is very subtle, but very noticeable to us.
We’re social creatures and have an unconscious understanding of how people should look. Slight changes, and it all goes off triggering alarms.
That’s why cgi faces are so difficult to pull off. Unnatural movement is picked up almost instantly and we know it’s fake.
gravity plays a major role in bringing everything to the ground .. when muscles and tissues are no longer “excited” by their “minisicule” electric charge “-70 mvolts”, everything becomes flacid and organs and tissues tend to press against one another towards the ground .. a carcas is also noticibally heavier than a living body.
I typed out a long response and then realized this is ELI5.
In the spirit of that, the spark of life has gone out of us when we die. Our soul has left our body and the thing that’s makes us “us”.
The light in you no longer is able to see the light in them. They are just their body, their “meat vehicle” that used to transport the real them through our shared reality.
I don’t mean to say this in a callous way and I’m sorry if it comes off that way. I hope you can find some bit of peace in believing that we are more than just our bodies.
Well, you know, if you actually took a moment to think about it, you’d see that dead bodies look different because of things like decomposition and the lack of blood flow—mind-blowing, right? I mean, it’s really not rocket science; muscles relax, skin changes color, and all sorts of fun biological stuff happens. Honestly, anyone with a basic grasp of biology could tell you that. But hey, I guess not everyone has the curiosity to explore the fascinating world of human anatomy and decay.
1. Many muscles in our bodies have constant tension in them whether we are aware of it or not. When we die, all of that tension is gone, so the face shape is different.
2. Every structure in our bodies down to the smallest cell is part of a complex circulatory system. Various body fluids are constantly moving around. When we die, it doesn’t take long for all of that fluid to stop circulating and gravity pulls much of it toward the lowest part of the body. (For example, if you’re laying on your back, it will be pulled away from the front side of your body and pool in your back.) This process make our faces lose the pink tones and turn white or shadws of blue. It also affects the shape of our faces because they’ve lost volume.
These are just my main observations, and I know there are other things going on, including temperature, chemical, and moisture changes. It’s a very hard thing to witness, especially for the first time and/or when it’s a loved one. Try to remember them the way they looked when they were alive.
All of these answers are great and explain it brilliantly. However, just to add to the mix as a paramedic and having worked on many many arrests and traumas etc. there is definitely a moment life leaves the body be that a soul or whatever. But you see and feel it happen and you know they are gone even if we are working on them and nothing has changed in the arrest.
Humans evolved to avoid deadly peril. A body means something bad and dangerous is happening. Just as we are better at spotting snakes in tall grass than spotting rocks in a empty field, we are very honed to notice and respond to death.
Sorry to hear that.
Bodies lose blood so they become pale. Tissues become hard because there is no ATP (the unit of energy the body uses) to relax the muscles. The term for it is rigor mortis.
Latest Answers