Is everything we think we know about heart disease WRONG? 'Mummy research' shock findings

FOR YEARS health experts have blamed heart disease on the modern lifestyle, but researchers who examined ancient civilisations have claimed that the issue plagued just as many people in pre-modern times.

 

'Mummy research' reveals startling findings around the cause of heart disease

 

Decades of scientific research has indicated a strong link between heart disease and today’s ‘unhealthy’ way of life.  

For years, the general consensus has been that a sedentary lifestyle combined with a diet high in fat greatly increases the risk of heart disease.

 

Decades of scientific research has indicated a strong link between heart disease and today’s ‘unhealthy’ way of life.  

For years, the general consensus has been that a sedentary lifestyle combined with a diet high in fat greatly increases the risk of heart disease.

 

The link between diet and cardiovascular ailments has been demonstrated through numerous studies

 

Examinations of the bodies ancient civilisations revealed that the ailment of heart disease is by no means unique to the modern man.

In fact, pre-modern people who exercised regularly and ate whole, natural foods were also afflicted by shocking levels of the disease. 

While the belief that diet is closely linked to heart disease is widely shared, scientists have long debated which modern eating habits are to blame for the high rates of the disease. 

 

Researchers found indications of heart disease in ancient mummified bodies

 

Some argue that fats and animal products should be avoided, while newer claims say a diet rich in proteins and low in carbohydrates is the better way to go. 

But the ‘mummy research,’ which has been referenced in the Lancet journal, indicates that there may be another unrecognised factor at play. Researchers of the initial study hypothesised there may be a ‘more basic predisposition’ to the disease. 

However, critics say the number of mummies examined is insufficient to support wider claims, and the bodies are too old and decayed to provide accurate information

  

Critics say the quantity of the study is insufficient and the bodies are too old to be accurate

 

Of the findings, medical director of the Heart Institute in Long Beach said to The Independent: “When I became a cardiologist 30 years ago, I was pretty dogmatic about the low-fat, low-cholesterol diet to prevent heart disease. 

“(But) we’ve been unable to find a culture without atherosclerosis and I’m not really sure what to eat, personally, to delay atherosclerosis, or what to recommend to patients. Of late, I tell people to stay lean.”

“We have this wistful hope that if we go back to nature that we would markedly delay atherosclerosis. But these people ate a natural diet, and they still had heart disease. I no longer think that way.”