Don't blame fast foods: heart diseases are genetic and have come down to us from ancient Egyptian times, says Nevine El-Aref If you have been given the unwelcome news that you or a loved one has heart disease, don't blame fast foods. Cardiovascular disease does not come with modern living but is a genetic syndrome and has been with us since the Pharaohs. Heart disease is the world's leading killer, and its increase in the past few years has been put down to recent changes in living styles. For some time the growing frequency of the disease has often been attributed to urbanisation, smoking, fast food and an idle lifestyle, but now this theory is being challenged by the results of CT scans and studies carried out by a team of scientists, cardiologists and archaeologists on 20 ancient Egyptian mummies. The studies being conducted at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo, are revealing that cardiovascular disease and arteriosclerosis are genetic ailments and have been around since the Pharaohs. They point to the lifestyle characteristic of our modern times being not guilty of the original cause of the problem. However, it appears that lifestyle has affected certain aspects of the growth and increase of disease. The story of the scientific discovery began in 2008 when Adel Allam, co-investigator of the study, and Gregory Thomas, a cardiologist and imaging specialist at California University, made a visit to the Egyptian Museum, and admired the nameplate on the mummy of the 19th-Dynasty Pharaoh Merenptah (1211-1201 BC). This mentioned that Merenptah died at approximately 60 years of age and was afflicted with arteriosclerosis, arthritis and dental decay. This piece of information triggered the curiosity of both scientists, who asked in astonishment how this could possibly be. Arteriosclerosis is commonly thought of as a disease with a risk factored into modern living. A rich diet, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, modern stresses and even processed foods are thought to play some role in the disease process, and so it seemed surprising that it had been found in an ancient Egyptian mummy. Intrigued by what they saw and read, Allam and Thomas organised a joint venture team of cardiologists from Egypt and the American Heart Association (AHA), along with Egyptologists led by Abdel-Halim Noureddin, professor of ancient Egyptian language at Cairo University. Their aim was to determine if the ancient Egyptians did indeed suffer from arteriosclerosis, and if so how common and how widespread it was. Early this year, in the back courtyard of the Egyptian Museum, 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. Allam said that 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, Allam said, 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. "I didn't believe it, but the arteriosclerosis looks just like it does in our modern-day patients," Allam told Al-Ahram Weekly. He began to question whether this critical disease was only an elite malady, or if it also affected poor people. To answer this question, Allam said, more information needed to be collected about the lifestyle of the people whose mummies had been subjected to CT-scans. 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. Allam says arteriosclerosis is ubiquitous among modern humans and, despite the differences in ancient and modern lifestyles, the study found that it was rather common in both eras -- at least among the rich -- so human genetics may be such that arteriosclerosis is an expected human condition. "Further research in other cultures and amongst less affluent ancient humans will help to answer this question," Allam said. So the disease is not a modern-life issue. But where did it come from, and how did it start? Noureddin believes that 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. At the same time, Noureddin said, practically no one in ancient times was sedentary, and that may have helped counteract their fatty diets. "We know a lot about Egyptian architecture, religion, and art, but we don't know a lot about medicine in ancient Egypt or how widespread diseases were," Noureddin pointed out. According to Michael Miyamoto of the University of California in San Diego, the team was struck by the similar appearance of vascular calcification in the mummies and in present-day patients. Perhaps, Miyamoto continued, the development of arteriosclerosis was a part of being human, as we are observing the footprint of the same disease process in people who lived thousands of years ago. Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at Mid-America Heart Institute, Kansas City, sees that humans in ancient times had the genetic predisposition and environment to promote the development of heart disease. The findings suggest that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease. The study was funded by the National Bank of Egypt, Siemens AG of Germany and St. Luke's Hospital Foundation in Kansas City. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), revealed that scientific studies executed on royal mummies by the team that he led two years ago to identify the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut made the discovery that ancient Egyptians suffered from heart disease. "The CT-scan of the mummy of Pharaoh Tuthmosis II, Hatshepsut's husband, shows that he was a heart patient, and that the illness led to his death," Hawass said.
