body are eldritch enough , but it ’s the bushed ones that go for real intrigue . The fact that most of us just do n’t drop that much time around them intend it ’s hard to split up truth from fiction . Corpses have been thought to be responsible for plagues and to transmit witching healing belongings . Below , some dead body myths that wo n’t give up the ghost — and explanations of the tangible - sprightliness science behind them .
1. Hair and nails grow after death.
Not true ! The cellular telephone division driving hair and nail increase stops when the body break down and the nub no longer pump atomic number 8 - filled line of descent throughout the circulative system . It doeslooklike things keep growing , though . When a dead body ’s skin lose hydration , it retracts — and abjuration along the nail bed makes it appear as if the nail are flummox longer . As for fuzz , drying skin on the face and head " commit back towards the skull , make stubble come along more prominent,“writes Claudia Hammondfor the BBC . " Goosebumps make by the muscle contraction of the fuzz muscles can sum to the consequence . "
2. Dead bodies are dangerous …
There ’s no science to back up the idea that a beat and decompose body is harmful to the living just by virtue of its being utter . This might sound obvious , but the opinion that disease came from breathing in air infected by corpses was once vulgar .
The miasma possibility , as it was called , was awidespread beliefamong extremity of the medical profession ( and the populace ) in the 19th century . Miasma , an ancient Greek word for “ pollution , ” was the unfit air coming from “ rotting army corps , the breathing out of other people already infected , sewerage , or even waste botany ” and was imagine to be responsible for the spread of disease , according to a 2001 paper inBMJ . Fortunately , this belief was finally replaced by germ theory .
3. … And multiple dead bodies areextradangerous.
In a 2005 publication from the Pan American Health Organization ( a division of the World Health Organization),Donna Eberwine explainedthat the belief that utter bodies disseminate disease " stay a chronic problem in disaster relief elbow grease . " After natural disasters , there is often hysteria around stagnant eubstance and a rush to now sink them , which distracts relief efforts from more exhort concerns . " The microorganisms that are involved in decomposition are not the kind that make disease , " Eberwine writes . " And most virus and bacteria that do cause disease can not survive more than a few hr in a utter body . "
There are some exception . The grade of Ebola computer virus in dead victim canremain eminent , and their remains should only be handled by people in protective gear ( and buried quickly ) . HIV can dwell for up to 16 sidereal day in a body held under refrigeration , and other pedigree - borne computer virus like hepatitis , along with tuberculosis and gastrointestinal contagion , can pose a risk . " The hazard of contagion can be minimized with basic precautions and proper hygiene , " Eberwine save .
4. Embalming makes dead bodies safer.
" Embalming provides no public wellness benefit , " according to theFuneral Consumer ’s Alliance(a not-for-profit focused on low-cost death care ) , citing the CDC and Canadian authorities . While individual funeral director might say that a body must be embalm before viewing or burial , the cognitive operation isnot legally requiredif the body will be cremated or refrigerated for viewing prior to burial or cremation . Moreover , since a idle body is usually not in itself harmful , embalm does not make it any safer . On the flip side , embalming chemical substance are really quite toxic , and embalmers must cover their entire physical structure and wear out a gasmask while work .
5. Dead bodies sit up on the medical table.
This repulsion - motion picture image just is n’t real . During chemical decomposition reaction , a body might twinge or make small movements and noises due to the gasoline and waste released by bacterium . A decomposing corpse can definitely move a little , but sitting straight up is just not going to bump .
6. Burying a body without a coffin or vault will contaminate groundwater.
Nope ! Burials usually pass off at 3.5 feet below the footing ’s airfoil , whereas potable body of water can be 75 feet secret . " Mandatory setbacks from known piss rootage also ensure that airfoil water is not at risk of infection , " the Green Burial Council explains [ PDF ] . to boot , because microorganisms go in the soil will break in down the chemical substance compounds that remain in a idle body , we actually give out " more toxic chemical during a day of keep than a whole body will decomposing . "
7. Cremains are ash.
Though we often talk of " dust ash , " cremains are a lilliputian more complicated . Once a body mean for cremation has been burned in what ’s telephone a replication , what ’s left will be put in a cremulator . Sort of like a blender , the cremulator habituate ball carriage or rotate blades to pulverize the clappers and other remnant into a " grayish , coarse material , likefine gravel , " as HowStuffWorks puts it .
8. Maybe death isn’t as scary as we think.
allot to psychological scientist Kurt Gray , it ’s possible that death is n’t quite as terrifying as we think it is . Graystudiedthe responses of end quarrel inmates and terminally ill patient as well as those of people inquire to imagine they had untreatable cancer , andfound that"while it ’s instinctive to fear death in the outline , the closer one really puzzle to it , the more positive he or she becomes , " asNew York Magazineexplains . This may be due to something address the " psychological resistant scheme , " a terminus coined by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert in hisbookStumbling on Happiness . According to Gray , our psychological immune system is engaged when bad affair pass . " So when one is face up with last , all sorts of rationalization and significance - making unconscious process come in , " he toldNew York Magazine . That may sound like your brain ’s trying to give you a cop - out , but it ’s much skillful than living in scourge .
A variant of this article was published in 2017 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
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