Scanning ancient mummies, in search of heart disease
The Aleutians the team scanned didn’t eat fatty food, but they may have had other risks for cardiovascular disease such as inflammation caused by infections or from inhaling smoke from cooking and heating fires in caves like this one, pictured in 1936. (Ales Hrdlicka / National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)
Heart disease is often associated with the modern sedentary lifestyle, but when a team of researchers performed CT scans on mummies from Egypt, Peru and North America, they found that preindustrial people had hardened arteries too. The findings were published in the journal Lancet this week.
