Heart attack but no civilization disease?

Scientific study: Mummies with arteriosclerosis discovered

12/03/2013

Arteriosclerosis could be directly related to the human aging process. This is suspected by an international team of researchers who found in the study of mummies the heretofore as a civilization disease atherosclerosis. As a result, people already suffered from deposits in the arteries 4,000 years ago. Consequences of arteriosclerosis such as heart attack and stroke are among the leading causes of death in industrialized countries.

Risk factors for arteriosclerosis include high-fat foods, nicotine consumption and lack of exercise. The fact that 4,000 years ago people suffered from this disease puts the so-called disease of civilization in a new light. Could the human aging process possibly be directly related to the disease? Randall Thompson from „Saint Luke´s Mid America Heart Institute“ in Kansas City supports this thesis: „Based on the results, we believe that our understanding of the causes of atherosclerosis is incomplete.“ Arterial calcification may be linked to aging, the expert said.

Mummies showed signs of arteriosclerosis
For their study, scientists studied 137 mummies from four different world religions and epochs, which came from ancient Egypt, Peru Alaska and the Southwest of the US, according to the British Journal „The Lancet“. Accordingly, more than a third of mummies are „Signs of arteriosclerosis have been noted“. „Atherosclerosis was already prevalent in the four pre-industrial populations including the pre-cultural hunters and gatherers“, the researchers write.

According to information from the team to study director Randall Thompson could with the mummies „various periods of more than 4000 years are studied“. It was important for the researchers to cover the living conditions of the hunter-gatherer cultures up to the agrarian societies. „The mummies, which are not from Egypt, were not preserved in an artificial way, but by natural climatic processes“, Thompson reports. The scientists were able to find out from extensive investigations that older people at that time had a higher disease risk of atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis). „The disease risk is comparable to today's modern societies“, the scientists summarize. According to study results, no or only a small influence had the gender, the region or the age.

Western lifestyle aggravates atherosclerosis
Today, atherosclerosis is one of the leading causes of death worldwide in addition to cancer. So far, physicians have assumed that atherosclerosis is primarily a disease of wealth in the Western world. In fact: Above all, a high-fat diet, little exercise and cigarette consumption increases the risk of aggravation of atherosclerosis, which steadily increases in old age. One of the most common consequences is the heart attack or stroke. According to calculations by the World Health Organization (WHO), both named sequelae are among the second leading causes of death worldwide. (Sb)

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Image: Harald Wanetschka