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Blood clotting on death
Name: lynne kelley
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1993
Question:
Does blood clot when you die and if so, how exactly? Does it
just thicken on death?
Replies:
Author: lynne kelley
Text: Does blood clot when you die and if so, how exactly? Does it
just thicken on death?
Yes, blood clots upon death. How? Actually, the mechanism of
clotting upon death is the same in life. Blood clotting occurs in three
general stages:
1) PROTHROMBIN ACTIVATOR is formed in response to blood vessel injury or
damage to the blood itself.
2) This ACTIVATOR converts PROTHROMBIN into THROMBIN.
3) The THROMBIN acts like an enzyme to convert FIBRINOGEN into FIBRIN THREADS,
which enmesh platelets, blood cells, and plasma to form the clot itself.
Now, since the heart stops pumping blood around the body upon death, the blood
in a dead body essentially just sits in place in the vessels. In other words,
the blood is in constant contact with the surface of the vessels. Such
constant contact actually damages the blood. This initiates the INTRINSIC
PATHWAY, involving many chemical FACTORS, which produce the PROTHROMBIN
ACTIVATOR (step #1 in our summary above). This happens throughout the body,
and once clotting begins, it is virtually impossible to stop naturally.
Another source of damage to the blood is uncontrolled FREE RADICALS. In the
living body, a system of ANTIOXIDANT enzymes, nutrients, and other substances
are constantly neutralizing damaging molecules called FREE RADICALS. Free
radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons and are the result of normal
metabolism. However, when the body dies, the antioxidant systems die, too,
and free radicals are left unchecked. By their chemical nature, they initiate
destructive chain reactions which increase logarithmically. And as we saw
already, damage to the blood would initiate the intrinsic pathway to begin
blood clotting. Incidentally, blood can clot in the living body and cause a
lot of problems. The condition is called ATHEROSCLEROSIS. If atherosclerosis
occurs to a vessel leading to the heart, it could starve heart tissue, causing
it to die, and cause a heart attack as a result.
wizkid
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Update: June 2012
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