On a sunny day in 2009, a crew from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo plucked a 3,000-year-old mummy from its glass case, carried it out of the museum and across the parking lot, and loaded it, coffin and all, into a tractor trailer equipped with a CT scanner and a team of eager American cardiologists. Six years later, that scan, along with data from 136 other mummies from across the globe, are helping modern man fight one of his most deadly nemeses—coronary disease.

While the mummies’ hearts decomposed long ago, calcium build-up in the arteries “survives thousands of years,” says Dr. Samuel Wann, co-author of a review paper published in Global Heart that examined cardiac disease among our ancient ancestors. That lasting calcification allowed researchers to find that our low-carb, high-exercise ancestors across Peru, Europe, the American Southwest, Alaska, and Egypt also suffered from atherosclerosis, an artery hardening condition frequently chalked up to sugary modern-day diets, smoking, and decreased exercise. Perhaps more importantly, the Egyptian mummies—the only ones well-preserved enough to make this comparison—suffered at roughly the same rate that we do.

“It means that we’re all at risk,” says Dr. Gregory Thomas, co-principal investigator on the paper. “That even if we follow diet and exercise and don’t have high blood pressure, don’t have diabetes, we still have a chance of getting atherosclerosis.”

Researchers attribute some of the mummies’ hardened arteries to smoke inhalation from indoor fires used for cooking, as well as from chronic infections and inflammations that affect the coronary system. The findings, adds Thomas, suggest that genetics and environmental factors may play a bigger role in coronary disease than previously thought, but don’t ditch your diet yet. Healthy eating habits and exercise significantly reduce the risk of winding up in a tractor trailer outside a museum with cardiologists of the future analyzing your calcium.