20 Strange and Surprising Facts about Death

death

They (and please do not ask me who “they” are because I have no earthly idea) say that the only thing certain in life is death – and taxes. But some people manage to get huge refund checks every single year even though they didn’t pay but a few dollars in taxes so, therefore, taxes don’t seem like something quite so awful as death for some, you know? But death; that’s certain. You begin dying the moment you take your first breath. Some people just take longer than others. And even though you might think you know all there is to know about death, you might be surprised how little you actually know. Aside from the fact that we all die eventually, we are willing to bet a few of these surprising facts might just shock you about death. Read on to find out if it’s true.

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You’re Actually Born with 270 Bones

Babies are born with more than 270 bones, and they begin to fuse as the baby grows older. This is what happens when babies are born because they need to have more flexible body parts in order to make it out of the birth canal. As they grow older, their bones begin to fuse so that they eventually grow up and into the 206 bones that they will die with.

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Old Age is Not Recognized as a Cause of Death

According to medical professionals, we don’t actually die of old age. We die of things contributed to old age, such as health related issues or just plain old inactivity due to the deterioration of our bodies. However, it’s impossible to die of old age. So really, we could probably live forever if we could figure out how to stop disease and the other issues than plague our bodies as they grow older and more experienced.

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Most People Die in Hospitals  

It is a very stressful realization to understand that the vast majority of people die in hospitals. But the good news is that most people aren’t dying here because of anything untoward. Most people die here because they choose to come here for very aggressive treatments from diseases that will kill them anyway, and they end up dying here as a result of that and not because of anything that the hospital or doctors are directly responsible for in any way.

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There are Approximately 130 Causes of Death  

You can die of about this many things, though we think there are new ones added to the list on a fairly regular basis. But you will not find old age on this list. No, you will not. It is something that you cannot die from, but there are so many other ways you can die. Most of them, though, are related to health issues and other things of that nature, and even the loss of life due to accident or the purposeful intent of another person for reasons that are unbelievable to the rest of us.

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Approximately 35 Million of our Cells Die Per Minute

That seems like a lot of cells, especially when you figure out who many minutes there are in just one day. But the good news is that though we are filled with dead cells any given moment of the day, we are growing them at a more rapid pace than we are losing them. We just don’t realize how much our bodies do on a daily basis, and perhaps if we did, we’d rest just a little bit more so that we can get a little bit of relaxation on so our bodies can work a bit better.

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2,500 Lefties Die Annually Using Products Designed for Right-Handed People

It’s difficult being a leftie in a world of righties. In fact, it’s so difficult that 2,500 people die every single year from using products make and marketed for right hand people simply because they are easier to find or they are the only ones available to left handed people. You’d think that someone would do something about this, but it seems not to be a big deal for some.

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Poor Handwriting Kills 7,000 People Per Year

When I’m sick and refuse to go to the doctor, my husband tells me I’m paranoid. When I read this statistic, I told him he was wrong. The doctor is great, but I hate going to him for something simple like a cold. And now I know why. He could use his sloppy handwriting to write me a prescription that is illegible to a pharmacist, who might get something wrong and give me something that could kill me. I mean, it only happens 7,000 times per year, so that’s low odds, right?

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Men can Experience Erections After Death

The body is an interesting thing, and it does interesting things. The penis, for example, can react to calcium in the body, which sometimes still produces even though the body is dead. But that doesn’t matter when you consider the fact that sometimes you can experience an erection after death thanks to this circulating throughout the body and allowing men’s bodies to perform certain things even though nothing else is going on.

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More People are Killed by Vending Machines than Sharks

One person on average loses their life each and every year in the United States thanks to a shark attack. But two people die each year thanks to the attack of the vending machine. That’s right; those people upset that the machine ate their dollar or that their calorie-filled chips got stuck in the machine are not doing themselves any favors. When people decide to attack a machine to get their food or money, those sometimes fall on them and kill them. That’s why it’s more dangerous to use a vending machine than swim at the beach.

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Your Body Begins Eating Itself within 3 Days of Death

Bacteria that is not part of your body but that lives within your body is going to continue to live once you are no longer with us. But that means that your lack of eating once dead is going to cause some issues. For example, your bacteria will begin eating your body so that it stays alive, and this usually occurs within 3 days of your death because the bacterium begins to starve, and it does not want to die.

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Burying the Dead is one of the Earliest Forms of Religious Practice

There is some indication that people have been burying one another’s bodies in some way for around 130,000 years or so, which indicates that this might be one of the original forms of religious practice. It’s believed that the burying of the body has to do with religious belief rather than ‘it’s just something we’ve always done,’ and that’s why it’s such an important Christian practice in many cultures.

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All Deaths Result from Lack of Oxygen

The one thing all deaths have in common is the fact that the person dying can no longer breathe. It does not matter what causes the death such as a car accident, murder, illness; it’s always a result of the person’s inability to breathe as a result of their body no longer working appropriately thanks to the cause of death. It is the only thing that all deaths have in common.

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Nearly 18 Percent of Resuscitated Patients Experience Out of Body Death Experience

There have been many studies that prove this, and no way to link anything that happened during the medical intervention that would have caused the experiences to happen. It’s believed that many medical professionals are looking to find out of the out of body experience that some people say they encounter while being resuscitated is due to some kind of medication used that might encourage hallucinations, but it’s not been proved.

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Suicide Rates Drop around the Holiday Season

There is a widespread belief that the suicide rate becomes quite high during the holiday season, but it would seem as if this is not the case. In fact, most medical professionals agree that there are fewer suicides during the holiday season than any other time of year, so that’s a good thing. It’s a happy time of year, so there’s no reason to go killing yourself.

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1 of Every 200,000 High School Athletes will Die Suddenly

It seems that there are some underlying health issues that will cause these deaths, but no one knows about them because it’s just not common practice to have children tested for many of the issues that aren’t supposed to happen at this age. Anyway, it seems that more boys die than girls and most of them play either football or basketball, and the issue is heart-related.

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Cremations are Bad for the Environment

It takes a lot of oil to burn a body to complete ash, and that is why it’s so important for people to consider doing something else when they die. It’s just not good for the environment, and we don’t need people ruining it even more once they’re gone and no longer care what happens to the world around them.

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Embalming Fluid is Awful for the Earth

…but burying a body is no better for the environment. Embalming fluid used to keep bodies looking good for funerals is filled with toxic chemicals that eventually find their way into the soil. This gets into water, into gardens, and suddenly you are consuming embalming fluid on a regular basis. Okay, so I might have made that last part up, but it does seem a little bit gross, doesn’t it?

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Suicide is more Common than Murder in New York City

You see a lot of murders happening in New York City, but the fact of the matter is that the murder rate here is far less than the suicide rate. Perhaps it is the cost of living or the traffic that just does people in and makes it impossible for them to want to live another moment in the world. I don’t know what causes people to kill themselves, but I do know more people choose to take their own lives in NYC than other people choose to take lives.

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Most Burn Victims Don’t Die of Burning, but from Toxins in the Air

There seems to be few things in life as terrifying as the idea of dying in the middle of a fire, but it does happen. And while it does happen, most people are not killed when fire overtakes their bodies and they are unable to get out. In fact, most people who lose their lives in fire lose their lives to the toxins in the smoke that they inhale. It’s one of the most important reasons that people are taught to get low and to make a point to cover their mouths when they breathe to keep the toxins out as much as possible.

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Death has 200 Euphemisms

You can say that someone died in more than 200 different ways. From kicking the bucket to entering the white light, there are so many sayings for death that it would take us forever to list them all. It’s a little morbid, but I bet there is someone who will read this and turn it into a party game to try and come up with as many euphemisms for death as possible in the moment. And what’s even sadder is that it kind of sounds like it would be hilarious. I mean, we all die. If we can’t joke about it, what can we do?

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