Lyle Hurd: Dr. Cass, let’s continue in our cascade series. We’ve talked about adrenals, we’ve talked about cognition. Tell me about how important it is to avoid body wasting. As an example, theoretically, we lose one-percent of our body, our lean body muscle mass a year from the time we’re 45. Dr. Hyla Cass: If we don’t maintain our body. And the really bad news is that we just don’t disappear. It all turns into fat. So that’s even, you know, we’re losing that lean body mass, which is our muscle, and we’re gaining fat. And, you know, you watch people as they age and their bellies go out, they start to hunch over; they don’t look so good. And then you see other people that are aging really gracefully. And what’s the difference? You could say genetics, but, you know, our genetics aren’t fixed. The more we know about genetics and we’ve uncovered the human genome, the more we know that, actually, we can turn genes on and off very easily with exercise, with diet and with nutrients. So we really are in control of our genetics. It’s not a fixed thing. So you can say, “Well, oh, yeah, my mother was diabetic, so I’m going to be diabetic.” Or, “obesity runs in my family, so that’s just the way it is.” Or, “heart disease runs” it doesn’t matter. You really can make a difference. And what we do know is people, even as old as 70, they did a research project. They took people that were of age 70 to 90, who’d been eating probably the Standard American Diet, which is kind of horrible. Lyle Hurd: SAD, right? Dr. Hyla Cass: SAD, S-A-D. Standard American Diet and gave them the Mediterranean diet, which is lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, some protein in the form of fresh chicken and meat, and fresh water. You know good food. You know no sugar, no excess of bread or the refined carbs. Anyway, they took these people, put them on a Mediterranean diet and reduced their risk of a heart attack by 50 percent. Lyle Hurd: Wow! Dr. Hyla Cass: And they had a control group. How you know this is they took a control group. So there was one group of 70 to 90-year-olds that went on this diet and then a matched group; same demographic, same ages, whatever and they did not have the Mediterranean diet. They kept eating their Standard American Diet, not the Mediterranean. Fifty percent reduction in heart attacks. Okay. And so, while we’re talking about heart attacks, you’re saying, well how do we get from lean body mass to heart attacks. The risk factors for heart attacks are poor diet, obesity which then leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol this is all syndrome X and fat, particularly belly fat and you avoid all of these by eating the appropriate diet and by exercising. Lyle Hurd: So basically, the exercising and diet is good for body mass, it’s good for bone density, it’s good for bringing oxygen to the brain. Dr. Hyla Cass: You think better. Lyle Hurd: And those are all Very important factors in maintaining a good attitude, a healthy body and longevity.