The Ancient Egyptians were more modern than one might think. Not only did they have heart disease, they’re now being given CT scans.

So says a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association by cardiologist Gregory Thomas at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues. Thomas and chums took whole-body CT scans of 22 mummies housed in the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, Egypt.

And despite its link with our recent lazy, fatty, smoky lifestyle, atherosclerosis – where the artery walls thicken from a build up of cholesterol – was prevalent among the mummies.

Why would cardiologists look at this in the first place, and what does the study tell us? Well, according to the LA Times, Thomas became interested after he read about Pharoah Merenptah.

When he died at age 60 in 1203 BC, Merenptah was plagued by atherosclerosis, arthritis and dental decay, the story says. Thomas reckoned that traces of atherosclerosis might still be there, and set off to Egypt armed with a scanner.

The tell-tale signs were calcium deposits in the hearts and arteries of the mummies, which were spotted by the scanners. Of the 22 mummies, the team were able to find the hearts of 16, and of those 9 had signs of the heart disease.

The disease seemed to be age related – affecting those over 45 of both sexes.

So what does this mean for modern humans? Thomas thinks it shows that heart diseases is just part of what it is to be human, and the British Tabloid the Daily Mail take this as a reason to let fast food off the hook.

But it makes sense – the Egyptians, at least those of sufficient status to be deemed mummyfiable, ate a diet rich in fatty meats, and salt was often used to preserve food because fridges were some 3,500 years away from being invented.

Image by Michiel2005 via flickr under Creative Commons