A new study of mummies has revealed that the condition was common across the ancient world, even among active hunter-gatherers who had no access to processed food or junk food, which are considered to be important culprits in clogged arteries. This shifts away from the common theory that moving away from junk food would be an easy way to avoid getting clogged arteries.
In atherosclerosis, your arteries become narrowed and hardened by plaques made up of cholesterol and immune cells. The condition is known to lead to heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases and is the leading cause of death in the developed world.
Lack of exercise and a high fat and sugar diet are both thought to lead to the risk of plaques building up – this is because they increase levels of cholesterol in the blood. This has often led to the suggestion that if we led a lifestyle closer to hunter-gatherers that would decrease the risk of getting hardened arteries.
To examine whether this is true, a team of scientists examined the bodies of mummies from a number of ancient civilisations including the Egyptians, Peruvians and the Ancestral Puebloans of southwest America.
While all of the different civilisations had different diets and lifestyles, the researchers were surprised to find that almost all of them had equivalent clogged artery problems to our modern civilisation.