ORLANDO, Florida, USA (AP) - No one can blame this on McDonald's: Researchers have found signs of heart disease in mummies from 3,500 years old.
"We think (these diseases) as being caused by modern risk factors, such as fast food, smoking and lack of exercise, but the results show that they are not the only reasons for clogged arteries, said Dr. Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City.
Thompson and other researchers used CT scans, a type of x-ray in 22 Egyptian mummies at the National Museum of Antiq? Ages in Cairo.
mummified bodies belonged to individuals who lived between 1981 BC and 334 AD It is believed that half were over 45 when he died, when the average life expectancy was less than 50. Sixteen mummies
heart tissue and blood vessels to be analyzed. In nine of them was definite or probable hardening of the arteries.
"We were surprised by the similar appearance of vascular calcification in mummies and our patients today," said another researcher, Dr. Michael Miyamoto, University of California at San Diego. "Perhaps the development of atherosclerosis is part of being human," he added.
A mummy showed evidence of a possible heart attack, but scientists do not know if it was fatal. Nor can they weighed how these people because dehydrates the body mummification.
Of those whose identities could be determined, all were of high social status and many served in Pharaoh's court or as priests or priestesses.
"Rich people ate meat, and put salt on the meat, so maybe they had hypertension, but that's speculation," said Thompson.
With modern diets, "somehow we all live in the Pharaoh's court," said another of the researchers, Dr. Samuel Wann, the Heart Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The oldest mummy with signs of heart disease was the Lady Rai, nanny of Queen Ahmose Nefertari, who died around 1530 BC, 200 years before King Tut.
The German company Siemens AG, National Bank of Egypt and the Mid America Heart Institute of the United States funded the study. The results appear in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and were released on Tuesday during a conference of the American Heart Association.
