Mummies have Hardened Arteries

A study was very recently published in The Lancet reporting on atherosclerosis in pre-industrial mummies.  They studied the preserved remains of people from Egypt, Peru, ancestral Puebloans, and Unangans from the Aleutians.  They found that in all cases there was cardiovascular disease.  It should be noted too that Ötzi, the 5000 year old frozen man from the Alps, also had cardiovascular disease.  In their conclusion, they state that this may well invalidate the idea that indigenous diets would protect people against cardiovascular disease.  I disagree.  All of the mummies studied, with the exception of the Unangans, were from cultures that engaged in agriculture and ate grains.  The Unangans were the only hunter/gatherers in the sample.  There were five Unangan mummies studied and of that, three had cardiovascular disease.  The confounding factor is that they lived in such a cold, windy climate that their homes were thick earthen mounds that continuously had fires for warmth.  They were extremely sooty.  Breathing soot will cause atherosclerosis.  The authors suggest that atherosclerosis “is an inherent component of human aging and not characteristic of any specific diet or lifestyle.”  They also go on to say that there may be factors that we do not understand.  That may be true.  I would say that the study suggests that the advent of agriculture and or environmental factors (soot for instance) could be the primary causes in the development of cardiovascular disease.  These mummies have both of those factors in common with contemporary people.

--Dave

www.thelancet.com    Published online March 10, 2013    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60598-X

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