The 11 most painful ways to die, according to science
Death is something natural that sooner or later reaches us all. Imagine how we are going to die is often a cause of anguish that some people get to the point of obsessing. Most people prefer a quiet end without suffering , but nevertheless death does not always arrive in a peaceful and painless way.
And is that there are many ways to die, some of them are practically painless while others suppose a long torture for the dying until the arrival of his death. In this article, specifically, we review the 11 most painful ways to die according to what is known about the processes of pain perception.
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The most painful ways to die
Below you can find a list of the 11 ways to find our end that are considered to cause more pain and suffering. Most of those that are part of the list can occur naturally, in emergency situations or accidents .
However, the human being can also cause death in extremely painful ways, which is why a category of deaths caused by man has also been added to the list (some of which suppose a level of suffering as much or more elevated than the others present in the list).
- Maybe you are interested: "Chronic pain: what it is and how it is treated from Psychology"
1. Dehydration
Considered by science one of the most painful ways to die, dehydration supposes the absence of a sufficient amount of fluid in our body . If this is prolonged and the lost fluids that our organism needs are not recovered, the corporal systems begin to notify their lack in the form of generalized malaise. In the long run the set of organs would cease to function, including the nervous system.
In the absence of water, the body will try to hydrate itself with other body fluids, such as the cerebrospinal fluid. The kidneys stop secreting urine and swell and the eyes dry. Fever, dizziness and hallucinations would occur, being able to reach a coma and later to death.
2. Starvation
Like the lack of water, the lack of nutrients It is also another of the considered worst forms of dying. If we are not able to access any type of nutrient, the body will begin to burn the fats and lipids present in the body to stay alive. In case that is not enough, the body will literally begin to consume itself, degrading the components of the muscles and later the organs in an attempt to stay alive.
3. Drowning
Drowning and suffocation in general are one of the most distressing ways of dying. In the absence of oxygen in the body, a sensation of internal tear depending on the water, it floods the lungs and the stomach, which is combined with a high level of anxiety caused by knowing that we can not carry air to our lungs. Later the lack of oxygen will cause the heart to stop beating.
4. Burns
One of the most painful deaths is the one that is produced by the action of fire . The cells and nerves of all burned parts are activated producing an increasingly deeper pain as the surface layers of the skin are being destroyed, in a process that can last more than ten minutes. To the pain joins the panic before the knowledge of what is happening. The progressive loss of blood and fluids ends up causing the organism to stop, although most people usually die earlier due to intoxication by the smoke and gases emitted in the combustion.
5. Implosion
This way of dying is not very common because it is not common to find environments where the pressure exerted on our body is greater than that of the earth's surface. But nevertheless, if the level of pressure on our body rises too much , its content (organs, viscera and bones) will be compressed and eventually cause our death.
6. Depressurization
One of the less common forms of dying on this list, but which nevertheless involves one of the highest levels of suffering. It usually happens in accidents with astronauts, with rapid changes between atmospheric pressures going from a high level of pressure or a much lower pressure. This variation generates that the gases contained in our lungs and of elements present in our organism expand, generating great pain and obstructing the cardiovascular system and causing death. In extreme cases the body can literally explode.
7. Polyraumatism
It is a form of death that can be very painful.Regardless of the pain produced by broken bones and multiple external wounds, possible internal injuries are added in different organs such as the liver, kidneys or lungs.
In the latter case, the presence of severe incisions in the lungs can already be an extremely painful form of death: if they are sufficiently damaged, they do not transmit enough oxygen to the rest of the body, filling up with blood and causing suffocation slowly. In addition, the lacerations cause pain in each inspiration, so that continuing to breathe is a source of suffering.
8. By radiation
Although it may be invisible, radiation is another of the most dangerous causes of death and it can generate more pain depending on the type of exposure and radioactive element to which we are exposed. The radiation causes the degradation of tissues at the cellular level , and even at the DNA level, which can generate a high level of pain and different symptoms. On the other hand, as we have said this depends on the type of radiation, sometimes not perceiving any symptoms until it is too late.
9. For sleep deprivation
It is an unusual type of death, but possible. There is a rare disorder called fatal familial insomnia in which death occurs precisely because of the absence of sleep. Continued sleep deprivation can generate discomfort, weakness, anxiety, alterations in perception and mood, deterioration of intellectual functions and, in the long run, cerebral death , since the organism does not have any period of recovery.
- Maybe you're interested: "The 7 main sleep disorders"
10. Being devoured alive
Although most animals kill their prey before eating them, certain species do not end their victim's life before they start feeding on them. In these cases the victim perceives and is aware of how the animal opens its flesh and starts and devours parts of it, may take a long time to die depending on the parts that attack the creature.
11. Deaths caused by man
Most of the previous deaths are produced without the intervention of another person being necessary. However, the human being has created throughout history numerous methods that cause intense pain in the person who is going to be executed.
In this aspect highlight different methods of execution and torture . Some of the examples that we can put of this type of death are the hanging (in which the prisoner could suffocate for around ten minutes if he did not break his neck in the fall), the wheel (in which he tied himself to the victim to go uncoordinated little by little), the iron maiden, the dismemberment with the use of horses, the beating to death, the forcing of the ingestion of corrosive or burning substances, the stoning, the crucifixion (in which the person it ends up suffocating with the passage of time because the posture in which the body remains does not allow to breathe normally) or impalement. This category includes some of the above .
