(CNN) A few years ago, I read reports of an indigenous tribe living deep in the Amazon rainforest whose members had hardly any evidence of heart disease. In fact, the researchers concluded after a year-long study that the Tsimane, as they are called, had the healthiest hearts in the world, a title previously held by Japanese women.

Preventing heart disease is a topic I think about all the time, given my own significant family history of heart disease. Like many people, I worried that it was inevitable for me. So last summer, I decided to travel to Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in South America, to learn what they could teach me and the rest of the world about preventing heart disease.

Getting to the Tsimane wasn't easy. After flying into La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, we took a small prop plane to Rurrenabaque, a small town in the lowlands of northern Bolivia, along the Beni River and at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. We drove 4x4 trucks as far as we could into the forest and then jumped into dug-out canoes and made our way down the rivers and streams of the Amazon.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta heads into the Amazon region of Bolivia to meet the Tsimane tribe.

We knew the Tsimane lived in small extended family clusters of 60 or so people along the banks of the river. We finally found one of the villages just as the sun was starting to set. Having traveled to more than 100 countries around the world, it is particularly exhilarating for me to find places that are still so different than any I have seen, as was the case deep in the Amazon.

That night, we set up our tents in the middle of the village and began our life as Tsimane. Thatched huts surrounded us, with no electricity or modern conveniences. One day, I pulled out my iPad, tapping and swiping through the screen, and the Tsimane were slack-jawed and wide-eyed, looking at me like I was a sorcerer.

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