0

I know there are different causes of death for humans like heart disease, cancer, stroke, injury and so on, but i was thinking if in every case in the last instance death is due to hypoxia/anoxia.

Am i missing other mechanisms ?

What i'm searching are the last mechanism that cause the organism to collapse and die.

E.g. (non detailed just an example)
In the case of heart disease, a plaque could lead to the block of a myocardial artery followed by local hypoxia/anoxya that kills the heart tissue followed by cardiac arrest and death by general anoxia.

MauroM
  • 98
  • 1
  • 10
  • Copy of this http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/41207/why-do-you-die-if-you-cannot-breathe ? – Nathan Jan 07 '16 at 15:25
  • There is no one ultimate cause of death. For instance, there are neurotoxins which kill brain cells while oxygen remains plentiful, and there is complete disruption of the brain, as with a suicide-bomber. – mgkrebbs Jan 07 '16 at 18:39
  • You will first need to define death, Mauro. Good luck. You might say, when the organism stops moving for good, but I have shot deer that keep moving well after I shot them. Like 15mins after. You could say when the heart stops, but I know people whos hearts have stopped at one point and they are still alive today. So our first task would be to define death, so that you may later classify an organism as dead or not dead. Let us know what you come up with. – DonJulian Jan 07 '16 at 20:09
  • 1
    @Nathan Thanks for pointing that out, i would check it later to deepen my knowledge about hypoxia... there are indeed common parts in the two question, but the one that you linked is focused only on hypoxia while my question is more broad in the sense that i'm searching for other mechanism different from hypoxia that cause the death of a person. – MauroM Jan 08 '16 at 08:23
  • @mgkrebbs Thanks for the comment, could you gently suggest me some reading about one of these neurotoxyns ? But if a neurotoxin badly damage the brain is there a chance this in the end lead to the failure of lung function (by poisoning of the respiration centre) and consequently general hypoxia ? – MauroM Jan 08 '16 at 08:38
  • @DonJulian When i thought about this question i remember an MD (i was young and not really into science so i'm sorry to bring this without reference) that said something like: In the end we all die of heart failure. I think he was referring to the fact that independently from the primary cause of damage (a trauma, a pathology, a poison etc) in the last instance the collapse of the organism was caused by failure of heart function and blod flow to the entire body. – MauroM Jan 08 '16 at 08:50
  • Having the head removed by an axe or sword is fairly ultimate... – Solar Mike Oct 26 '19 at 17:50

0 Answers0