There are many things that set us humans apart from other species: large brains, bipedalism, a predilection for puns. But we’re also defined by our singular vulnerability to cardiovascular disease.
Heart attacks and strokes, the leading causes of death in humans worldwide, are rampant in our species and our species alone. Even chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, suffer from cardiovascular disease at far lower rates, and for different reasons. So how did we get stuck with a plague of plaque-filled arteries?
A recent study by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, suggests that a mutation during the lower paleolithic period, which began around 3.3 million years ago, could be the culprit. This single genetic alteration inactivated a gene called CMAH, leaving early humans without the mechanisms that seem to protect other mammals from heart disease.
Namely, the loss of the gene made our forebears deficient ...
