What health issues were present in Ancient Egypt?
Guinea worms: Sometimes in Ancient Egypt, the Egyptians ingested guinea worms, though their drinking water. The female guinea worm would move around inside the person to find its favoured spot, generlley the host leg. They did this to lay their eggs, therefore this would cause the person to have health problems.
Nutrition: Even though there was a wide range in food produced, not everyone had sufficient nutrition. There is evidence from the bodies of Ancient Egyptians, that were retrieved from their graves, that some people suffered nutritional deficiencies. A lack of nutrition can lead to in long turn being overweight or obese, tooth decay, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and stroke, type-two diabetes, osteoporosis (osteoporosis is when your bones become very fragile and frail form loss of tissue), some cancers, depression and eating disorders.
Work: In some work areas the conditions were very lousy. Some records show that tomb builders complained of headaches, others were too drunk to go to work, and some had emotional worries. If something went wrong while making the pyramids and someone got injured they would have to try and heal the person right there.
Eye diseases: Eye diseases were common in Ancient Egypt. Flies, dirt, sand particles, dust and the Saharan climate commonly caused them. Many Egyptians wore eye paint, this was to cover up and cure the eye infections. They used green and black eye paint, the green eye paint contained malachite with had medicinal properties. Also the black and green eye paint had copper and lead, when put over their eyes killed bacteria.
Life expectancy: In Ancient Egypt the life expectancy was a lot lower compared to today. But in Ancient Egypt they were unlikely to live more than around 40 years of age. Unlike today in Egypt the average standards were 71 years of age for the male and 75 years of age for the female. People today are very astonished at how young King Tutankhamun was when he died. He died when he was 18 years old, still he was called 'mature'.
Illness caused by bites: In Ancient Egypt there a lot of poisons reptiles, such as scorpions and serpents. Due to the large amount of poisons reptiles, they built a first millennium BC Horus stelae.
Internal organs: There were diseases that would effect your internal organs, These diseases were hard to detect. One of the types of internal diseases affected your kidney stones.
Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis was a common disease in Ancient Egypt. This disease was spread by air. It would affect peoples lungs, kidney, spine and brain.