Effect of temperature on reactions and metabolism

The degradation of the body following death is due to several factors, all of which depend upon chemical reactions. The body s metabolism is made up of two distinct types of processes catabolism and anabolism. 

Anabolism is the building up of the small molecules, once they have been absorbed, into bigger molecules which are needed for maintenance and growth of the body (see Chapters 4 and 5). 

The boys mentioned at the start of this chapter survived because their bodies were very cold. The colder the conditions, the slower a chemical reaction takes place. In fact, a drop in temperature of 10 °C will roughly halve the rate of any chemical reaction. The boys bodies were in water about 40 °C below normal body temperature. The first drop of 10 °C halved the rate of catabolism the next drop 

Some lengthy surgical operations are performed with the patient wrapped in a cooling blanket to slow down metabolic processes, but not usually as low as the boys temperature in this case. 

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