Cholesterol found in the bodies of five mummies suggests that our ancestors 4,000 years ago also suffered from heart disease. Study details are published in the American Heart Journal .
Studies had previously revealed signs of atherosclerosis (plaques that build up in the arteries, blocking blood flow) in 500-year-old Greenland mummies. In Egyptian mummies over 3,000 years old, too. Without forgetting Ötzi, the famous 5,300-year-old iceman found in the Alps, whose blood pressure would have made all cardiologists jump.
All of these discoveries were made using computed tomography (CT) techniques. But these studies only showed damage at an advanced stage of these heart problems. So to date, we only had an incomplete picture of the magnitude of the risk of heart disease several thousand years ago. A recent study, on the other hand, allows us to see a little more clearly.
For this work, Mohammad Madjid and his team, from McGovern Medical School, analyzed the arteries of five ancient mummies from South America and ancient Egypt using a near-infrared spectroscopy technique. They were three men and two women between the ages of 18 and 60.
They then isolated early lesions due to excess cholesterol . It is this cholesterol buildup that then forms the arterial plaques that slow blood flow and cause heart attacks.
This is the very first time that researchers have detected an early stage of atherosclerosis in our ancestors. It is therefore not an inherent disease of our time.
Recall that cholesterol deposits on the arterial walls are essentially the body's wound healing mechanism, in response to multiple traumas that can damage the inner lining of the arteries. This inflammatory response is a normal process. But the damaged arterial walls become increasingly sensitive to the accumulation of white blood cells , which can then lead to cholesterol accumulation .
That's when the trouble starts. Striae and lesions appear, before thickening enough to block blood flow arterial, and therefore the oxygen supply in the heart.
Note that three of these mummies died of pneumonia. Another died of kidney disease and the last of an unknown cause. They were therefore not victims of this high cholesterol level. Like most of our ancestors, these people did not live long enough to die of atherosclerosis.
Source
Related Articles:
