A new study into the deaths of hundreds of preserved mummies from around the globe have produced findings which suggest heart disease is far from the disease of modernity we often think it to be today, with its lead author describing it as “literally older than Moses.”

The Global HORUS Study, published in the European Heart Journal, led by cardiologist Dr. Randall C. Thompson, examined 237 adult mummies from across different cultures across the world spanning 4,000 years, according to a Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute (SLMAHI) press release. To the surprise of many researchers CT scans revealed that over 37% showed “definite or probable atherosclerosis” in the arteries that can result in “heart attack and stroke.”

After more than a decade’s long process of CT scans and data tracking, cardiologists from across the world have found heart disease to be found in humans more than 4,000 years ago. https://t.co/1I4mGG34Pu

— KCTV5 News (@KCTV5) May 29, 2024

A colleague of Dr. Thompson inspired the study when he saw a mummy at an exhibition in Cairo, Egypt, he told KCTV5. The mummy’s plaque reportedly claimed he had died of atherosclerosis, which they thought was impossible as this was considered a condition caused by modern lifestyle choices.

“As cardiologists, we said, ‘Atherosclerosis? He couldn’t of because that’s a modern disease, and how would they have known anyway?” he told the channel.

The study spanned four millennia of mummies and seven distinct cultures around the world and consistently found plaque in key arteries suggesting heart disease was likely to have afflicted all people throughout history, the press release reads. “We found atherosclerosis in all time periods—dating before 2,500 BCE—in both men and women, in all seven cultures that were studied, and in both elites and non-elites Thompson said, accord the press release. “This further supports our previous observation that it is not just a modern condition caused by our modern lifestyles.” (RELATED: New Studies Find Marijuana Raises Risk Of Heart Disease And Stroke) 

Heart Disease and Artery Wall Lesions: Mummies & Iceman[ What the Studies? Really? ] pic.twitter.com/tKWgaKcomP

— Dr. Tom Biernacki (@MichiganFootDoc) March 17, 2024

Heart disease remains the biggest killer in the United States and around the world, accounting for one in five deaths in 2021, according to the CDC website. Despite his findings that heart disease has always been with humans, Dr. Thompson maintained that modern lifestyle choices including “smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and poor diet” can worsen the disease’s “inherent risk,” according to the press release. “This is why it is all the more important to control the risk factors we can control,” he added.