Cancer in Mummies

I hate to be too picky on the validity of the thesis, but ancient economies are still rather extant and a modicum of statistical work will shake out the truth when a handful of mummies could well mislead.  Besides we have the mummies from South America to also review.

I think the big issue is simply lifespan.  Cancer falls on its victims in their seventh decade at best if smoking and obesity are eliminated.  Outside the modern era, death came from infection.  Fifty percent of those killed in South America died from pneumonia before age fifty.

Also in the seventeenth century Europe, doctors began to use autopsy to determine cause of death and reporting changed and the modern era arrived.  And yes that is when the joys of smoking were introduced.

This means other thesis needs to be eliminated before we accept this one.  The wealthy first indulged and the wealthy are the ones who got a semblance of medical care.  Today we are been caught by our extended lifespan which is allowing cancer to emerge as a killer in formally rare situations.

In short, no smoking, a reasonably healthy life style however primitive, will avoid cancer to the age of fifty and beyond.  It is the late middle age cohort who is then at risk and then only occasionally.  Without modern medicine, few made it there.

Egyptian mummies prove cancer is 'man-made'

by Terrence Aym

http://www.helium.com/items/1983875-egyptian-mummies-prove-cancer-is-man-made

Cancer is the bane of the modern world. It kills millions of people annually. Yet the strange fact is, that there is almost no trace of the insidious killer among the remains of ancient peoples.

This incredible epiphany rocked researchers on their heels. Ancient people simply didn't die from any cancer-related disease.

During an interview with a UK paper, Professor Michael Zimmerman stated, "'In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases."

Yet the evidence gleaned from mummies and investigations into the causes of individual’s deaths revealed case after case where no cancer could  be found.

"The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies," Zimmerman emphasized, "must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity, indicating that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialization."

For some years many cancer experts have contended that the modern-day malady must have its roots in the modern-day lifestyle, particularly that of the Western culture. The mute mummies have actually communicated a lot: their bodies' lack of cancers and tumors underscore many researcher's suspicions and tends to support their theories.

Not content to let physical evidence alone prove the case that cancer is man-made, Zimmerman and an associate, Rosalie David, poured through ancient literature, classical medical writings and investigated fossil records likely to contain the tell-tale signs of encroaching carcinoma.

They came up empty handed.

A previous study of thousands of bones from the remains of Neanderthals also failed to turn up evidence of any cancers. According to the study, only one Neanderthal may have been afflicted with cancer, and even that is not proven.

Although the ancient Greeks were the first to write of diseases that today would be identified as forms of cancer, the condition was exceedingly rare. It was not until the middle of the 17th Century that medical texts began defining the disease which had suddenly become more prevalent.

Zimmerman asserts that his research shows that distinctive tumors, carcinomas and cancerous lesions only began to be seen about 200 years ago. That falls in line with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of pollutants into the air and water and the addition of chemicals with artificial processing of of foods to preserve them longer than traditional methods of salting, smoking or drying.

Zimmerman's colleague, Professor David, spoke at a conference in early 2010. During her presentation she stated that, "In industrialized societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare.

"There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer," she noted. "So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle."

Perhaps all this new evidence should make the US FDA reconsider artificial sweeteners, binders, and preservatives not to mention irradiated food, genetically engineered crops and animals and the newly approved cloning?