Heart disease is the leading cause of death of both men and women throughout the United States. The most common cause of heart attacks is the hardening and narrowing of the arteries, atherosclerosis.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking are all factors that contribute to atherosclerosis. Researchers recently discovered that heart disease is not just a modern illness. It's possible that humans have genetically inherited the disease, according to Computed Tomography or CT scans of ancient mummies.

Researcher Randall Thompson of the University Of Missouri Kansas City School Of Medicine found that heart disease was present in mummies 3,500 years old. A study was conducted on atherosclerosis across various regions from four ancient populations. Individuals from Egypt, the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, ancient Peru and Puebloans from southwestern America were examined.

"Our findings greatly increase the number of ancient people known to have atherosclerosis and show for the first time that the disease was common in several ancient cultures with varying lifestyles, diets, and genetics, across a wide geographical distance and over a very long span of human history, said the researchers.

Computed tomography (CT) scans were done on 137 mummies: 76 were ancient Egyptians, 51 were ancient Peruvians and five each from the ancestral Puebloans and the Aleut people. Heart disease was found in 34 percent of the mummies and the average age of death was 43 years. All of the cultures were physically active and not known to follow a vegetarian diet.

"Indigenous food plants varied greatly over the wide geographical distance between these regions of the world. Fish and game were present in all of the cultures, but protein sources varied from domesticated cattle among the Egyptians to an almost entirely marine diet among the Unangans," said Randall and his colleagues.

The research concluded that hardening of the arteries was common in all four ancient populations, regardless of their geographic region or diet.

"The presence of atherosclerosis in premodern human beings suggests that the disease is an inherent component of human aging and not associated with any specific diet or lifestyle," said the study.

The fact that the disease is still prevalent in modern times as it was in ancient times suggests that heart disease is an inherent part of human life. The study was published on March 10 in the journal Lancet.