A study in The Lancet of 137 mummies up to 4,000 years old found a third had signs of atherosclerosis（动脉粥样硬化）.

 

Most people associate the disease, which leads to heart attacks and strokes, with modern lifestyle factors such as smoking and obesity².

 

But the findings may suggest a more basic human pre-disposition.

 

Previous studies have uncovered atherosclerosis in a significant number of Egyptian mummies but it had been speculated that they would have come from a higher social class and may have had luxurious³ diets high in saturated⁴ fat.

 

To try and get a better picture of how prevalent the disease was in ancient populations, the researchers used CT scans to look at mummies from Egypt, Peru, southwest America, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

 

They found that 47 or 34% showed signs of definite or probably atherosclerosis.

 

Where the mummies' arterial structure had survived, the researchers were able to attribute a definite case of atherosclerosis by looking for the tell-tale signs of vascular⁵ calcification⁶. 

 

In some cases, the arterial structure had not survived but the calcified⁷ deposits were still present in sites where arteries would have once been.

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