Tsimane indigenous group
Sitting down but not for long
Matthieu Paley/National Geographic Creative
By New Scientist staff and Press Association
The Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon have the healthiest arteries of any population yet studied.
Researchers who examined more than 700 men and women from the group found that almost 90 per cent of people had clear arteries, indicating no risk of heart disease.
Even older people showed excellent health. Almost two thirds of people over the age of 75 were nearly free of risk for heart disease, and just 8 per cent had a moderate-to-high risk level. The prevalence of moderate-to-high risk for heart disease is five-fold greater in US adults.
One 80-year-old had arteries so healthy that they resembled those of people more than twenty years younger living in the US.
“The Tsimane indigenous South Americans have the lowest prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis of any population yet studied,” says Hillard Kaplan, at the University of New Mexico./.../