Tutankhamen was not your typical, vibrant 19-year-old. In fact, he was a wreck.
King Tut, as he would become known during the 1970s, when traveling tours of his treasures turned him into an archaeological rock star, ruled for only nine years before his death around 1324 B.C. We know the boy pharaoh had a broken leg, probably from a fall. But until the past year, we didn’t know how ill he was: He had a cleft palate, deformed left foot and other bone disorders that made him so frail he couldn’t walk without a cane or walking stick — there were 130 of them found inside his tomb when it was discovered in 1922.
It was malaria that finally killed the frail king, scientists suggest in a recent study, which was conducted by European researchers and Egyptologists and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February.
What do the health problems of Tut and other ancient people have to teach us? Plenty, say two U.S. doctors who have studied mummies and unlocked centuries-old medical secrets.
Dr. Greg Thomas and Dr. Michael Miyamoto, cardiologists who work together at Mission Internal Medical Group at Mission Hospital in Orange County went to Cairo in February 2009. They and other members of a team that included Egyptian archaeologists examined 20 mummies at the National Museum of Antiquities. The museum selected 10 mummies, and Thomas got to choose the other 10. He was led through a dimly lit basement where barely examined mummies in wooden coffins were stacked five or six high.
“I had goose bumps walking down there,” Thomas said. “It was like a scene from the set of an ‘Indiana Jones’ movie. It was better than a set, because it was the real thing.”
The mummies were run through a CT scanner’s tube. Whenever possible, the wood sarcophagus — an often elaborately decorated coffin — was loaded in. If it wouldn’t fit, the mummy itself, wrapped only in linen browned by age, was sent through. The subsequent images showed evidence of atherosclerosis — hardening of arteries caused by a buildup of plaques inside them.
Plaques are complex substances, made up of fats (including cholesterol) and other tissues. The most dangerous ones are found in arteries in the heart, neck and legs. If the buildup reaches a point at which blood flow is constricted, it can cause pain, blood clots, and — if the blockage is in the coronary artery — a heart attack. A stent can be used to plow through the plaque, pressing it against the arterial wall and restoring blood flow. But over time, plaques calcify, and there’s no way to remove them.
Thomas and Miyamoto found that the soft material in the plaques inside the mummies had long disappeared, but calcium deposits remained — unmistakable evidence of atherosclerosis. The condition previously had been thought to be a modern malady, attributable to a diet heavy in animal fats and processed foods. But of the 16 mummies in which arterial tissue was present, nine had calcium buildup — often visible on the CT scans as only a tiny white dot.
As Thomas points out, ancient Egyptians led active lifestyles and generally were healthy, even though they consumed cattle, goats, antelope and other meat. So there’s a strong possibility that atherosclerosis occurs naturally in the body.
“I don’t think we’ve figured out atherosclerosis as well as we thought we did,” Thomas said. “Humans had it 4,000 years ago, so we’re missing something.”
In a strange way, knowing that atherosclerosis is a “genetic hand-me-down from the human race” comes as a relief to many of the patients he’s treated, Thomas said. “We tend to think our actions cause a lot of what’s wrong in our lives.”
The doctors’ findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November, and since then, Miyamoto says, many people have taken a “fatalistic” view of the research.
“People say, if there’s nothing we can do about it, we may as well all go out and eat burgers and fries,” Miyamoto said. “I think it’s the opposite. Even though we may all develop atherosclerosis, we can modulate the severity through our lifestyles and aggressive treatment of risk factors.
“We want to die with the atherosclerosis, not because of it.”
The doctors will return to Cairo in late April or early May to examine 20 more mummies. The remains studied last year were not those of royalty, but people held in high esteem, such as generals or cabinet secretaries. The oldest among them was Lady Rai, a nursemaid to Queen Nefertiti, who lived between 1570 and 1530 B.C, about 200 years before Tut.
Source: Daily Press
