Overview of heart disease
Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States today.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)estimate that heart disease causes about 1 in 4 deaths in the United States each year. That’s 610,000 people per year. About 735,000 people in the United States have a heart attack each year.
Heart disease is considered one of the top preventable causes of death in the United States. Some genetic factors can contribute, but the disease is largely attributed to poor lifestyle habits.
Among these are poor diet, lack of regular exercise, tobacco smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, and high stress. These are issues that remain prevalent in American culture, so it’s no wonder that heart disease is of great concern.
Has this disease always plagued the human race or is our modern lifestyle to blame? A look back at the history of heart disease may surprise you.
Even Egyptian pharaohs had atherosclerosis
At the 2009 American Heart Association meeting in Florida, researchers presented study results showing that Egyptian mummies, some 3,500 years old, had evidence of cardiovascular disease — specifically atherosclerosis (which narrows the arteries) in different arteries of the body.
Pharaoh Merenptah, who died in the year 1203 BCE, was plagued by atherosclerosis. Of the other mummies studied, 9 of the 16 also had probable-to-definite evidence of the disease.
How could this be possible? Researchers theorized that diet could be involved. High-status Egyptians may have eaten a lot of fatty meats from cattle, ducks, and geese.
Beyond that, the study brought up some interesting questions and has prompted scientists to continue their work to fully understand the condition.
“The findings suggest that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease,” said co-principal investigator on the study, clinical professor of cardiology Dr. Gregory Thomas.
Early discoveries of coronary artery disease
To say exactly when civilization first became aware of coronary artery disease (arterial narrowing) is difficult. However, it’s known that Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) investigated coronary arteries.
William Harvey (1578–1657), physician to King Charles I, is credited with discovering that blood moves around the body in a circulatory manner from the heart.
Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742), chief professor of medicine at the University of Halle, noted later that coronary heart disease started in the “reduced passage of the blood within the coronary arteries,” according to the book “Drug Discovery: Practices, Processes, and Perspectives.”
