| Written by Egypt News | |
| Monday, 04 April 2011 | |
 Researchers have long known that ancient Egyptians suffered from plaque build-up in the arteries that supply the heart, but the latest finding suggests that the syndrome may be more prevalent, and mysterious, than previously thought.
“Commonly, we think of coronary artery or heart disease as a consequence of modern lifestyles, mainly because it has increased in developing countries as they become more westernized,” said Gregory Thomas of the University of California, Irvine. “These data point to a missing link in our understanding of heart disease, and we may not be so different from our ancestors,” he said. Researchers performed computerized tomography (CT) scans on 52 Egyptian mummies to determine whether they had atherosclerosis. Of the 44 that had detectable arteries or hearts, 45 percent of them had calcium buildups in their vessel walls. The oldest among them was an Egyptian princess who likely lived between 1580 and 1550 BC, and probably died when she was in her early 40s, researchers believe. Even though ancient Egyptians ate a leaner diet, including less meat, and did not smoke cigarettes, they ended up with the same disease as modern humans. But that does not mean people should disregard modern research, said co-author of the study Adel Allam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo. “Recent studies have shown that by not smoking, having a lower blood pressure and a lower cholesterol level, calcification of our arteries is delayed,” said Allam. “On the other hand, from what we can tell from this study, humans are predisposed to atherosclerosis, so it behooves us to take the proper measures necessary to delay it as long as we can.” |
This article infers that atherosclerosis and was very prevalent in ancient Egyptians. This seems to me to be a flawed conclusion based on a huge sampling error due to the fact that it is based on examinations of mummies. Only members of the ruling class were mummified, and they likely had to be high up in that class. It is almost certain that their diets were very different than that of the proletariat and they probably did not lack for calories or “rich” foods.
Jose,
Well ………….
I would worry about other issues first. For example, the samples ize is small and these were likely a relatively small set of haplotypes. A huge part of familial AS today is not accounted for by the common genes, perhaps these folks had some mutation we do not know of. E.f. mutations in apoE can, by thesleves, cause AS even w/o “western” diets.
As for diet, there are other reasons to be skeptical of any simplistic diet hypothesis. For example, country variation in incidence is not only by diet. Finland, e.g., stands out from other Scandinavian countries. Similarly Fijian Indians, I am told, have a huge incidence.
There is also historical data that goes against yout rich food argument. Osler did a ot of autopsies of older (and therefore likely affluent) Americans of his era. He describes ASVD and MI quite well but found them rare as opposed to diffuse myocardial fiobrosis.