GUARDING THE ENGINE OF LIFE

Cardiovascular disease remains the single leading cause of death worldwide, claiming close to 18 million lives each year, yet a large share of this burden is neither inevitable nor mysterious. This narrative article reviews the causes of cardiac problems through a practical lens, sorting them into non-modifiable factors — age, sex, family history and heredity, and ethnic background — which cannot be changed but can be anticipated, and modifiable factors — tobacco use, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, diabetes and obesity, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, harmful alcohol use, chronic stress, and poor sleep — which respond to everyday choices and medical care. Drawing on landmark studies such as the Framingham Heart Study and the INTERHEART study, the article argues that roughly nine in ten heart attacks are explained by modifiable risk factors acting together, which means prevention is not a matter of luck but of strategy. Tables summarize the distinction between the two categories and the clinical targets for each modifiable factor, while figures illustrate the anatomy at stake and the lifestyle levers that protect it. The central message is hopeful: we cannot choose our genes or our birth year, but we can decide, to a remarkable degree, how our hearts will age.