Mummy scans show heart disease may be ancient malady
12 March 2013 5:34 AM IST
Mummies from thousands of years ago and around the world show evidence of clogged arteries, according to a new research, which dispels the myth that heart disease is a modernlife ailment.
The study published in The Lancet, suggested that atherosclerosis, a form of heart disease wherein calcium deposits narrow the arteries, may have been a universal disease in all human societies, and not wholly a result of the modern diet. While some researchers believed hardening of the arteries was a 20th-century disease, that results from modern overconsumption of fatty, sugary foods, the new study suggested it to be a basic part of human ageing under all circumstances.
‘In three different continents and a total of five different sites prehistoric peoples had atherosclerosis,’ said study co-author Caleb Finch, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California.
Scientists have long debated whether clogged arteries and heart disease resulted from the fat and sugar-laden modern diet or an inevitable vagary of ageing. There's no doubt that westernised diets have worsened diabetes, obesity and chronic disease.
The study published in The Lancet, suggested that atherosclerosis, a form of heart disease wherein calcium deposits narrow the arteries, may have been a universal disease in all human societies, and not wholly a result of the modern diet. While some researchers believed hardening of the arteries was a 20th-century disease, that results from modern overconsumption of fatty, sugary foods, the new study suggested it to be a basic part of human ageing under all circumstances.
‘In three different continents and a total of five different sites prehistoric peoples had atherosclerosis,’ said study co-author Caleb Finch, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California.
Scientists have long debated whether clogged arteries and heart disease resulted from the fat and sugar-laden modern diet or an inevitable vagary of ageing. There's no doubt that westernised diets have worsened diabetes, obesity and chronic disease.
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