There’s Really Only One Way To Die

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0:00Cancer, heart disease, allergic reactions, drowning in molasses, getting your head bitten

0:06off by a grizzly bear – there are LOTS of things out there that can kill you.

0:10But when it comes to the inner workings of the human body,

0:14it turns out that everybody actually dies from the same thing.

0:17Hi, I’m Kate and this is MinuteEarth.

0:20We often use specific biological hallmarks,

0:23like a person’s heartbeat or brain activity, to divide life from death.

0:28But there’s something much more fundamental that drives these processes, and all the

0:32other life-sustaining processes constantly going on in your body:

0:35ATP, our body’s energy source.

0:38Every single cause of death out there actually kills us by interfering with

0:42our ability to produce ATP, powering down the very processes that keep us alive.

0:48OK, every cause of death except something like a nuclear explosion,

0:52which obliterates the need for these processes in the first place.

0:56But for the vast majority of us, death is a dearth of ATP.

1:01It takes two ingredients to make ATP:

1:03fuel and oxygen… without enough of either one,

1:07your cells can’t produce enough ATP to keep you alive.

1:10Starvation, for instance, is a matter of not having enough fuel to convert into ATP.

1:15But cells are really good at scavenging our bodies’ stores of fat, protein,

1:19and carbs, so in most causes of death, fuel isn’t the limiting factor… oxygen is.

1:25Normally, our respiratory system grabs oxygen from the air, then our

1:29circulatory system shuttles it to various organs, where cells use it to make ATP.

1:34Most causes of death interrupt this journey in some way.

1:37Some mess with the initial oxygen-acquiring part; like, pneumonia fills the lungs with fluid,

1:43preventing oxygen from making it into the bloodstream in the first place.

1:47Other respiratory problems, like lung cancer, anaphylaxis, and drowning,

1:51also prevent the respiratory system from effectively grabbing oxygen from the air.

1:56Most causes of death, though, interfere with the second part of the oxygen pathway.

2:00Like heart disease, the most common cause of death worldwide, narrows the arteries,

2:05restricting the flow of blood throughout the rest of the body.

2:08Electrocution messes with the electrical signals that regulate the pumping of the

2:12various chambers of the heart, leaving them unable to effectively pump blood.

2:16Strokes – another major cause of death – happen when blood can’t reach the brain.

2:20And sudden trauma can cause so much blood loss that the pressure in the

2:24circulatory system drops, leaving it unable to move blood through the body.

2:29In each of these cases, even though enough oxygen has made it into the body,

2:33that oxygen isn’t getting carried to cells, where it’s needed to produce ATP.

2:38And in a few especially-weird causes of death, plenty of oxygen is making

2:42it into the body AND getting where it needs to go, but cells can’t use it.

2:47Cyanide, for instance, messes with the cellular machinery that makes ATP,

2:52leaving it unable to use oxygen to complete the reaction.

2:55There are a ton of ways to interfere with the ATP

2:58production pathway – that’s why there are so many so-called “causes of death”.

3:03But no matter where – or how – the pathway fails, the ultimate result is the same:

3:08your body can’t produce enough energy to carry out the processes needed to actually maintain life.

3:14In the end, a lack of ATP is the ultimate cause of every single case of RIP.