Arteriosclerosis as ancient as the Egyptians

Early this year, in the back courtyard of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, a team of cardiologists and archaeologists assembled at the trailer carrying the CT scan machine to carry out scientific tests on 20 ancient Egyptian mummies. The mummies belonged to people with a high socio-economic position such as priests, court officials and others at the court of the Pharaoh. Examinations revealed that they died at an average age of 45, and that some had serious cardiovascular diseases, including clogged arteries.

Nine of the mummies with identifiable arteries or hearts left in their bodies after the mummification process had calcification either clearly seen in the wall of the artery, or in the path where the artery should have been. Some mummies had calcification in up to six different arteries. Skeleton analysis showed that arteriosclerosis did not differentiate gender: vascular calcifications were observed in both males and females. The mummy that showed most critical signs of arteriosclerosis was that of the lady Rai, the nursemaid of Queen Ahmose Nefertari, who lived to an estimated age of 30 to 40 around 1530 BC. However, the study did not reveal whether arteriosclerosis was the cause of her death or the death of other mummies.

More investigations and studies needed to be carried out on other mummies with a lower standard of living, or who lived in other provinces, such as the oasis, where they exerted more physical effort as a necessary part of their lifestyle. Results of both studies will be compared in order to learn whether arteriosclerosis was commonplace among all ancient Egyptians.

The disease is related to the ancient Egyptian civilisation. They used salt to preserve food: salt increases blood pressure levels, which is one of the causes of heart disease. Eating large amounts of bread, cheese, red meat and poultry, as well as honey and cakes made with butter, also increases blood cholesterol levels which are also associated with heart disease.

The study was funded by the National Bank of Egypt, Siemens AG of Germany and St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation in Kansas City.

Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Al-Ahram

Tags: Ahmose-Nefertari, ancient egyptian food, Heart disease, mummy, nutrition

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Egyptology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.