Surprise: Ancient Inuit Mummy Scans Reveal Possible Heart Disease

Trio of 500-year-old mummies may have had atherosclerosis despite fishy diet.

Dead Things iconDead Things
By Gemma Tarlach
Dec 27, 2019 4:00 PMDec 27, 2019 5:23 PM
Inuit mummy
A trio of ancient Inuit mummies, the remains of young adults, showed signs of hardening and narrowing of the arteries, or atherosclerosis. (Credit: Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)

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A trio of mummies may unravel the decades-old adage that an active lifestyle and a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids — such as those found in salmon, herring and other fatty fish — protect your heart.

Researchers used CT imaging to examine mummies of five Inuit adults who lived in Greenland about 500 years ago. The remains, naturally preserved in the environment's extreme cold, had been found by archaeologists in the 1920s and moved to a museum in Massachusetts.

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