Mummies show ancient humans had heart trouble too

Heart disease is commonly thought to be a modern ailment, but evidence from ancient mummies suggests humans have had heart problems for thousands of years.

Randall Thompson at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and colleagues analysed CAT scans of 137 mummies from ancient Egypt, Peru, Utah and the Aleutian Islands in the north Pacific Ocean. The mummies represent human populations dating from 3000 BC to the 20th century.

A significant cross-section of mummies, from all cultures and timeframes, had calcified plaque in artery walls ? most frequently the aorta but also in the neck's carotid artery (shown in photo) ? hinting at atherosclerosis, a major cause of heart attack.

The mummies came from populations of farmers and hunter-gatherers with different lifestyles, say the team. Finding atherosclerosis in a range of premodern humans raises the possibility of a predisposition to the disease, they say.

Eric Brunner at University College London says that people who were mummified were likely to be of a certain status. "Odds on they were high-status individuals," he says, and therefore had a higher-fat, more sedentary lifestyle.

Journal reference: The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60598-X

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