Most cardiovascular disease risk factors can be modified through life-style changes. Choices of habits and behavior are in fact heavily influenced by concepts of normality and social values. However, social influences fail to fully explain these choices, insofar as health-related habits are also shaped by personal experience. The main limitations of public health practice can probably be found at this subjective level. This article emphasizes the need to consider determinants of human behavior at different levels, increasingly important for strategies to promote health and prevent disease, or at least delay its onset. The primary focus is to influence rules and laws aimed at protecting life. The article also discusses possible strategies for translating scientific knowledge into public health action, avoiding the restriction to the "healthy life" regulatory role. Finally, participation by public health professionals is suggested in places where population groups share life experiences, such as workplaces, schools, and churches, developing approaches which include those experiences as well as fears and hopes related to health. Scientific facts might thus be transformed into more familiar elements of everyday life.