The Mummy’s Curse: Clogged Arteries

(NaturalNews) Living in the land of pharaohs, waited upon by servants and worshiping a polytheistic pantheon of gods — the lives of wealthy ancient Egyptians seem to most of us exotic and far removed from modern civilization. However, recent research shows they shared a mundane health problem which afflicts large numbers of people today — clogged arteries. At a heart imaging conference in Amsterdam in May of 2011, one paper presented involved a confluence of history and modern diagnostic technology. Researchers ran 52 ancient Egyptian mummies through a CT (computerized tomography) scanner to read information about their cardiovascular systems. The study found that most of the mummies that still had heart tissue also had calcium deposits in their arteries. The study leaders interpreted the presence of the calcium deposits as evidence that atherosclerosis is not related to lifestyle. Adel Allam, a cardiology professor at Al Azhar University in Cairo, served as co-leader of the study along with Gregory Thomas, director of nuclear cardiology education at the University of California in Irvine. Allam concluded that the high incidence of clogged arteries among ancient mummies means “We cannot blame this disease on modern civilization.” Other members of the study group also favor this interpretation of the mummy research: “From what we can tell from this study, humans are predisposed to atherosclerosis,” stated Randall Thompson of the St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City. However, some health experts see another explanation for the study’s findings. Joep Perk holds a position as professor of health sciences at Linnaeus University in Sweden and is spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology. Perk, who is not connected to the mummy study, bases his reading of the study on the basic historical fact that only affluent Egyptians merited mummification. He points out that ancient Egyptian elite shared significant lifestyle factors common among modern heart disease sufferers . “The pharaohs and other royalty probably had more fat in their diet than the average Egyptian,” Perk notes. According to historical experts, wealthy ancient Egyptians ate little fish but consumed an abundance of meats including pork, mutton and beef. They also ate fruit and vegetables. Salt was already in use during this period as a food preservative. Lack of exercise among the wealthy could also have played a role, says Perk. “The sculptures and hieroglyphs may show people who were very thin and beautiful, but the reality may have been different.” As with present-day heart patients, stress and genetics may also have contributed making some people more susceptible to heart problems brought on by high-fat diets. Ultimately, for the princesses and pharaohs whose remains were studied as part of the project, dying of heart disease may have been a mark of good fortune. Poorer Egyptians, says Perk, probably died of infections which the wealthy were able to escape: “They simply had the good luck to live long enough to develop heart disease.” Sources for this article include: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1388244/Egyptian-princess-3-500-years-ago-clogged-arteries-proving-heart-disease-modern-condition.html http://www.livescience.com/14194-egyptian-mummy-heart-disease.html

Vitamin D promotes memory and cognitive function in seniors

(NaturalNews) A lack of vitamin D has already been linked in several studies to depression. Now it appears a deficiency of this crucial nutrient could also play a role in robbing the brain of the ability to process information correctly and clearly. Defined as a person’s ability to process thoughts, cognitive function includes memory and the ability to learn new information, as well as speaking and reading comprehension. Aging is known to affect cognitive function in many people, resulting in memory loss and difficulty thinking of the right words while speaking or writing. But what if a lack of vitamin D could be the culprit that is causing or contributing to cognitive impairment in many elders — and not simply aging by itself? If that’s the case, it offers hope that adequate vitamin D could help keep minds agile and memory sharp. Research headed by epidemiologist Katherine Tucker with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, and published in Journals of Gerontology raises that possibility. Metabolic pathways for vitamin D have been found in the hippocampus and cerebellum — areas of the brain involved in planning, processing, and forming new memories. So it appears a lack of vitamin D could disrupt these cognitive processes. Dr. Tucker and her colleagues studied more than 1,000 elders receiving home care. The research team investigated associations between measured levels of vitamin D in the blood of these people, who were all between the ages of 65 and 99, and compared them to results of neuropsychological tests. The participants were then grouped by their vitamin D status, which was categorized as deficient, insufficient, or sufficient. The researchers noted in a statement to the media that older people needing home care have an elevated risk of not getting enough vitamin D because of their exposure to sunlight is often limited. And, in fact, only 35 percent of the research subjects had sufficient vitamin D levels in their blood for health. Those elders who did have adequate vitamin D scored far better on cognitive tests than those in the deficient and insufficient vitamin D categories, particularly on measures of executive performance, which included cognitive flexibility, perceptual complexity, and reasoning. The associations persisted after taking into consideration other variables that could also have influenced performance on the cognitive ability tests. Another new study just presented at the Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting held in San Diego provides more disturbing evidence that older adults commonly have low vitamin D levels. Researchers from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam investigated approximately 1,300 Dutch men and women age 65 and older and found almost 50 percent were deficit in vitamin D. For more information: http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/64A/8/888.abstract?sid=0007591c-0f9e-4df7-bd44-dee95244c8bb http://www.naturalnews.com/vitamin_d.html

Radiation Therapy Harms the Brain, Causing Memory and Attention Problems

(NaturalNews) Radiation therapy for the treatment of brain tumors may lead to cognitive decline later in life, according to a study conducted by researchers from VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and published in The Lancet Neurology . Scientists have known for some time that radiation therapy can damage healthy brain tissue, but prior research found no immediate negative effects from the treatment. In the new study, researchers conducted brain function tests on 65 patients who had undergone treatment for low-grade glioma 12 years previously. Low-grade glioma is one of the most common forms of brain tumor. It is non-carcinogenic, and can often be removed with surgery. However, many doctors use radiotherapy following surgery. The researchers found that a full 53 percent of patients who had been treated with radiation exhibited problems with mental function 12 years after their treatment, compared with only 27 percent of those who had not undergone radiation treatment. Radiotherapy patients were especially likely to have problems with memory and attention. Because the average patient survives a full decade after being diagnosed with low-grade glioma, the researchers noted that large numbers of patients will survive long enough to suffer the negative cognitive effects of radiotherapy. For this reason, they recommended that doctors avoid using radiation in the treatment of glioma unless absolutely necessary — such as in cases where the tumor returns after surgery, for example. “It always depends on the patient, but if it is possible to defer radiotherapy, maybe people should,” lead researcher Linda Douw said. Cancer research scientist Jeremy Rees of the United Kingdom’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery Honorary said that his hospital already avoids radiotherapy for low-grade glioma patients except when the tumor is already progressing or when the patient suffers from uncontrolled epilepsy. “Surgery is generally a preferred option with chemotherapy or radiotherapy coming into play at a later stage, if the glioma progresses,” he said. Sources for this story include: news.bbc.co.uk.