People have wondered what happens when we die since the beginning of human history, but let's put matters of religion and the afterlife aside and take a look at what happens to your body after you die. We don't like to think about the details of bodies decomposing, which is why morticians work so hard to make our loved ones look good after they pass away. However, the truth is that bodies and even coffins decompose over time, and after 10 years, there's not much left. Here's what happens to your body after it's spent 10 years in a coffin.
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00:00Though death is a fundamental part of life, it's something that modern society has mostly
00:04kept out of sight and out of mind. People pass away and are passed along. They're covered
00:08in sheets and kept out of sight until morticians beautify them for their final public reveal.
00:13Then the casket is closed, and that enclosure is literally stuffed into the ground and left
00:17impossible to access.
00:19Because of our increasing distance from the reality of death, though, people are left
00:22with plenty of curiosity, discussions, and speculation about what happens to the body
00:26after death. Does the body putrefy into a mass of watery substances, or does it desiccate
00:31like a mummy? What about mausoleums? Or types of coffin wood? Or a steel vault? Or methods
00:36of embalming? Do the deceased's health and age factors matter? Could you transform into
00:40a bog person like Tallinn Man in Denmark if only you sink into a peat bog at the moment
00:44of death? Could your body, in fact, absorb some crazy fungus and become an honest-to-goodness
00:48antagonist of the living in the zombie apocalypse? The possibilities are enough to keep anyone
00:53up at night.
00:54I mean, one minute you're in bed with a knockout gal, or guy, and the next you're a compost
00:59heap. Well, doesn't that bother any of you, because it scares the living piss out of me?"
01:04Well, we're here to put your mind at ease by removing the doubt and telling you exactly
01:08what terrible things are going to happen to your corpse once you inevitably die.
01:12There are a lot of factors that contribute to the state of a body. Certain biological
01:15facts, though, let us create a glass window in the lid of a casket to see what would happen
01:19to your body after 10 years, excluding certain exceptions like mummification, which involves
01:24removing the organs, and barring environmental factors. A wet environment will hasten decay,
01:28and a dry environment will slow decay, for example.
01:31The first thing to know is that the most dramatic decay happens within the first month, so the
01:35difference between a body at a month after death and 10 years isn't actually all that
01:39much. For bodies that aren't cremated, there's a specific pattern of events that typically
01:43happens in the United States.
01:44First, the recently deceased pass along to autopsy techs, who may or may not extract
01:49all of a person's organs. After this, a sutured body is passed along to an embalmer, who undoes
01:54the stitches, replaces the organs, and injects a mixture of embalming fluid called cavity
01:58fluid into various vessels. A sealant is placed over the sutures to prevent leakage, and sometimes
02:03plastic and powder are placed over the body as well.
02:06This is all before the mortician applies makeup, trims nails, and dresses the dead for burial.
02:10During this entire time, the body is undergoing decay that influences what it looks like 10
02:14years down the line. Within three days after death, in fact, the body undergoes autolysis,
02:19when bodily enzymes eat their own cells. Blood pools in parts of the body closest to the
02:23ground, rigor mortis occurs, and skin gets loose. And the abdomen? Generally, it turns
02:28lime green.
02:29After initial autolysis, the body bloats, exudes foul-smelling gases, and releases fluid
02:34from the mouth and nose, which, according to National Geographic, may be the inspiration
02:38for ancient vampire myths. This occurs three to five days after death, and explains why
02:43wakes are typically held right away. Then, the decay begins to slow down. From eight
02:47days on, skin recedes from fingernails, bodies start to look less human and more like decaying
02:52corpses, and flesh begins to decompose, with cartilage, bones, and hair staying intact
02:56much longer than muscles and organs.
02:58With no coffin or embalming, a body in the ground in nature takes eight to ten years
03:02to totally decompose. If there is a coffin or embalming, the timeline is prolonged. Decay
03:07sets in sooner in a wooden casket rather than a metal casket, but sealing a casket can help
03:11keep out moisture and bacteria. On the other hand, this can cause caskets to pressurize
03:15as decomposing bodies release gas. According to Trusted Caskets, wooden caskets can distort
03:21in shape and even explode underground. As you can imagine, this definitely won't help
03:25preserve the body, unless it somehow launches the corpse straight into the afterlife. Coffins,
03:30just like people, eventually decay and return to the soil. Long before then, though, the
03:34bodies inside them will largely be gone. Ultimately, from one month on, we all more or less liquefy
03:39at a similar rate. Within ten years? Teeth, bones, and maybe skin or sinew are all that
03:44are left. You know what they say, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.