Mummy's CT scan shows Heart Disease
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PrintA recent article by Steve Sternberg from USA Today entitled: Mummy's CT scans show heart disease came before fast food. Very interesting!
Please feel free to read the original article here http://tinyurl.com/y8q6bqu
In summary:
A team of Cardiologists, imaging specialists, Egyptologists and preservationists examined 22 mummies. These mummies were from the time period of 1981 B.C. to A.D. 364. In 13 of these mummies, they were able to find heart tissue or blood vessels, while only four of them had intact hearts.
Atherosclerosis was found in 3 of the 13. Another 3 had probable atherosclerosis. Calcification was more common in the mummies thought to have died over the age of 45.
What does this suggest? We cannot blame heart and vascular disease all on poor diet choices. It is very surprising to find significant blockages in these Egyptians. It was a time period well before fried foods, processed foods, and trans fats. For me it reaffirms that I will keep teaching all of the risk factors that contribute to atheroscerlosis. It is not caused by just one thing. Genetics, age, blood pressure, diabetes, smoking all contribute to our risk. In general, we need to try to keep ourselves as healthy as we can through good diets, activity, low stress and happiness.
See these links for more information on atherosclerosis and Cardiac CT:
http://www.bellinblogs.org/heart/09/09/04/video-artery-explorer
http://www.bellinblogs.org/heart/09/10/21/cardiac-ct
Also see Other Resources in the right hand column of this page
