Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!iuvax!mailrus!ncar!tank!scb1
From: scb1@tank.uchicago.edu (Sam Blackman)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: What is mechanism for bloating of bodies after death?
Keywords: death, bloating, floating
Message-ID: <6655@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 9 Dec 89 01:01:12 GMT
References: <4246@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 20

In article <4246@hydra.gatech.EDU> steve%revolver@gatech.edu writes:
>
>     What is the mechanism which causes the bloating which is observed shortly
>after death?  I think it involves anaerobic bacteria, but why do these same
>bacteria not cause bloating when the person is alive.  What has changed after
>death (beyond the obvious) that was not happening when the person was alive.

What has changed, in fact, is the fact that the person no longer has an
immune system that is capable of eliminating these bacteria because, of course,
he is now dead.  Similarly, there is a host of E. Coli and other bacteria
that live in our GI tract that will continue to function once we have
expired.  Perhaps it is these bacteria that are producing, amongst other
things, carbon dioxide, methane, etc.  thus the bloating.


-- 
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