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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. Jim Fix.

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Speaker 1: Some of you may know who he is, who he was,

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Speaker 1: some of you may not. And that's f I double

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Speaker 1: x James F Fix, but known as Jim Fix. And

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Speaker 1: he came up in a social media post recently and

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Speaker 1: I said, time to do a show. Time to do

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Speaker 1: a quick fit tip about him. And there's so much

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Speaker 1: involved in this quick fit tip. Exercise, death, joking, science, control, genetics,

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Speaker 1: heart attacks, causality, so much. I'm gonna do it in

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Speaker 1: under ten minutes, I promise. Jim Fix. Who was he?

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Speaker 1: He wrote a book and I'm holding a copy of

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Speaker 1: it as we speak. Pulled it out of my book

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Speaker 1: shelf filled with so many exercise nutrition just I love

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Speaker 1: my books and buy books, by the way. I want

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Speaker 1: hard copies of everything. The complete book of Running seven.

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Speaker 1: This book is Weathered. Took it from my dad. It's like,

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure he probably got it in. It is

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Speaker 1: Weathered single handedly credited with starting the as they say,

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Speaker 1: an anchorman, the jogging craze. And that's a soft ja

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Speaker 1: for those anchorman people. But wrote a book that got

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Speaker 1: people running. Here's the problem. Here's the issue. Here's what

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Speaker 1: they call ironic. He died while running at fifty two

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Speaker 1: in Vermont, and comedians joke about this, articles are written,

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Speaker 1: and again the term ironic is often used, which I

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Speaker 1: find so highly offensive, so highly offensive, and such a

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Speaker 1: double standard. And I'll tell you why surely. But yes,

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Speaker 1: this came up recently. Friends social media post. This person

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Speaker 1: had been sent something about Jim Fix and the ironic

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Speaker 1: death from her doctor. And she is a runner, a triathlete,

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Speaker 1: and I don't want to get into the specifics of

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Speaker 1: why the doctor sent it to her, but it wasn't

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Speaker 1: not a positive and that's a problem. That's a problem.

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Speaker 1: So Jim Fix wrote a complete book of running. I

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Speaker 1: do a race every year, the Gym Fix five mile.

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Speaker 1: I've been doing it for actually, I think that was

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Speaker 1: the first race I ever did at age ten twelve

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Speaker 1: with my dad and Jim Fix. Amazing, amazing. But yes,

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Speaker 1: he died while fifty two, died at fifty two while

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Speaker 1: jogging Invermont. Here's the thing. Let me read first, opening

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Speaker 1: up the book, and I'm gonna read from the inside cover,

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Speaker 1: looking at a picture of him running, and it says

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Speaker 1: when he started running several years ago, Jim Fix weighed

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Speaker 1: nearly two and twenty pounds and breathed hard just thinking

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Speaker 1: about exercise today at one hundred and fifty nine pounds,

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Speaker 1: so that's down. Let's do the math. Sixty one. He

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Speaker 1: has been declared medically fitter than most college athletes, has

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Speaker 1: competed in and finished six Boston Marathons, has won the

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Speaker 1: Connecticut ten thousand meter championship in his age category category,

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Speaker 1: and has run the equivalent of once around the equator. Okay,

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Speaker 1: but he died while running, and people think that's ironic.

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Speaker 1: Friends described him as being in great condition at the time,

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Speaker 1: said he hadn't complained about symptoms while running about ten

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Speaker 1: miles a day, which is a lot, and he, according

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Speaker 1: to the reports, even played tennis against his sister the

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Speaker 1: day before and beat her on Cape Cod. But the

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Speaker 1: reports after his death said what he had major heart

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Speaker 1: issues right, And what most people don't know is the

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Speaker 1: family history, which is so important. Jim Fix's father had

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Speaker 1: his first heart attack at the age of thirty five

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Speaker 1: and died from his next one at age forty three.

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Speaker 1: When it comes to risk factors, that is beyond enormous

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Speaker 1: family history of heart disease, family history of death, you know,

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Speaker 1: under the age of fifty five, huge red flag. And

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Speaker 1: Jim Fix's father died at forty three. Him. Fix was

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Speaker 1: also a heavy smoker, two packs a day for I

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Speaker 1: think it was seventeen years prior to his death. Seventeen

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Speaker 1: years two packs of cigarettes a day, but stopped. But

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Speaker 1: people joke he died fifty running. So what does that say?

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Speaker 1: What are they saying there? There's no benefit? Right, there's

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Speaker 1: no benefit? Why bother? Why bother running? And let me

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Speaker 1: get Here's a quote from that New York Times article

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Speaker 1: July don't need to give the name is a doctor

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Speaker 1: cardiologist in New York City. His quote is about Jim Fix,

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Speaker 1: does running benefit you? Nobody really has a clear answer.

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Speaker 1: Doctor blah blah blah said, Now I'm gonna give him

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Speaker 1: a little leeway because this was long time ago. How

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Speaker 1: much research have I given you in prior podcasts about

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Speaker 1: the benefits of running, the incredible benefits of exercise obviously connected.

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Speaker 1: Running is not bad for your knees, more is actually better,

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Speaker 1: dose dependent, So give him the benefit of the doubt.

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Speaker 1: But that was the prevailing wisdom for a really long time,

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Speaker 1: and many people still believe that. Okay, So when people joke,

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Speaker 1: when people talk about Jim Fix, what are you bothering

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Speaker 1: running for? Jim Fix died at fifty two. Well, guess

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Speaker 1: what Vermont's chief medical examiner what did she say about

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Speaker 1: Jim Fix? And I quote his heart was so strong

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Speaker 1: from years of exercise that it was able to pump

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Speaker 1: blood through the diminished arteries far longer than would otherwise

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Speaker 1: have occurred. Okay, what many and most who know the

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Speaker 1: true facts about Jim Fix and running and exercise believe

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Speaker 1: is it extended his life incredibly. Now, Jim Fix, I

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Speaker 1: would argue, when you do look at the facts, made

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Speaker 1: a couple of mistakes, including not, according to reports, getting

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Speaker 1: a regular checkup. Now this is years ago. Testing is

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Speaker 1: not perfect. But the question is would they have picked

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Speaker 1: up on something because he had some major hard issues.

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Speaker 1: Would they have picked it up with a stress test,

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Speaker 1: which which they said he didn't do, which I find shocking,

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Speaker 1: had not had a stress test, had not done what

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Speaker 1: he should have done with this family history, this incredibly

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Speaker 1: negative family history of heart disease and sudden cardiac arrest.

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Speaker 1: So to say that running is worthless is not worthwhile,

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Speaker 1: And to joke about it with Jim Fix, I find

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Speaker 1: offensive How much better was his life for those seventeen years? So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, what was the quality of his life?

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Speaker 1: And I'm gonna go there, I'm fifty two as of today.

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Speaker 1: There's a good chance I'm gonna get to this. I

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Speaker 1: shouldn't say that. It's a little negative, little moreause, a

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Speaker 1: little more bid. What is the quality of life when

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Speaker 1: you exercise? Is it the years you live or the

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Speaker 1: quality of your years? So what were those seventeen years

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Speaker 1: like for Jim Fix? I would argue really good, lost

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Speaker 1: over sixty pounds, stop smoking, was running, probably felt really good,

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Speaker 1: a lot better than most people who aren't doing those things.

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Speaker 1: So you can live to be fifty two and have

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Speaker 1: an amazingly happy, healthy life longer than you might not have,

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Speaker 1: are you. Yeah, we can live to be eighty nine

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Speaker 1: and the quality of those years beyond substandard. So this joking,

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Speaker 1: this ironic connection to Jim Fix dying at fifty two

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Speaker 1: a running Let me go here, do you know what?

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Speaker 1: Let me pull this up. Top five most commonplaces to

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Speaker 1: have a cardiac arrest are what is one of the

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Speaker 1: most I'm not gonna give you all. I just gonna

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Speaker 1: give you one that's a golf golf Do we hear

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Speaker 1: people joking calling it ironic that someone died well golfing.

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Speaker 1: Do we hear someone say in news reports articles, it's

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Speaker 1: ironic that someone died while sitting on the couch. Do

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Speaker 1: we hear someone joke about calling it ironic that someone

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Speaker 1: died while eating fast food? No, because they're ridiculous correlations.

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Speaker 1: But why is it okay to do it with exercise?

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Speaker 1: And that is so dangerous because again, at the least,

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Speaker 1: it's a bad joke, and at the most, it is

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Speaker 1: keeping people from believing that a specific form of exercise

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Speaker 1: is running or exercise in and of itself is helpful

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Speaker 1: that you have control, which is where I'm getting to

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Speaker 1: find it offensive. It's third time I've said it. Find

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Speaker 1: it offensive? Okay, So let's go to control. You talk

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Speaker 1: about genetics, his son to fix his son to forty

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Speaker 1: two marathon or insane grandfather, father died young. He's gotta

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Speaker 1: go to the doctor. He's got to do so many

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Speaker 1: things that we all need to do. That. Yes, back

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Speaker 1: in the eighties we weren't as good at it, but

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Speaker 1: still gotta take these things that we can control and

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Speaker 1: control them. But what about your genes. Well, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: give you two quick quotes. One is from a genetic

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Speaker 1: epidemiologist with the n h LBI, Cashell Jack Wish, who says,

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Speaker 1: having bad jeans what is the quote doesn't necessarily mean

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Speaker 1: you are faded to have heart disease. Other factors like

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Speaker 1: not smoking, diet, and exercise can have a very large effect.

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Speaker 1: Family history does increase your risk slightly, but not as

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Speaker 1: much as not doing these other things things you can control.

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Speaker 1: One more quote cardio vascular genetics researcher at the Mayo Clinic.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna why these names? Uh if if Ti car

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Speaker 1: coo if T car Colo cardio vascular genetics researcher agrees,

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Speaker 1: if you're dealt a bad hand by your family, it

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean you are determined to have heart disease. He says,

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Speaker 1: you can reduce that risk. The first layer is lifestyle.

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Speaker 1: The next layer is drug therapy. Risk is a scale

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Speaker 1: that you dial up. We're down, so finishing up and

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Speaker 1: by the way, over ten minutes, I apologize, I get

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Speaker 1: worked up, I get worked up. This say one final time.

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Speaker 1: I'm offended. How many people did Jim Fix help inspired me, inspired,

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Speaker 1: my dad inspired, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. Who

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Speaker 1: knows what the number is to get out and do

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Speaker 1: healthy things. So to joke about someone's death period is offensive.

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Speaker 1: There's fifth time, but seemingly it's okay when we're making

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Speaker 1: fun of exercise. How is that okay because fewer people

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Speaker 1: do it. I'm literally at a loss for words. Now

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Speaker 1: it's not okay, and it's not scientifically correct, and it's

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Speaker 1: harmful psychologically, physiologically, it is not helping people with their

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Speaker 1: best lives. I'm gonna give that doctor a break again.

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Speaker 1: Who said does running benefit you? No? Mondy has a

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Speaker 1: really clear answer. What we do now? We do now.

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Speaker 1: We're talking quality of life, extending life, controlling what you

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Speaker 1: can again in this fit tip is everything. This show

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Speaker 1: is about science, genetics, control and a worldview and a

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Speaker 1: way of looking at exercise. So thank you Jim Fix

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Speaker 1: for all you did. That's what should just be said.

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Speaker 1: Thank you stop using the term ironic. That ironic when

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Speaker 1: people die from unhealthy things. Thank you for listening. I

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Speaker 1: am Tom Holland please subscribe to the show, rate the show,

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Speaker 1: comment and if you want to reach out, questions, comments,

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Speaker 1: Tom h Fit, Instagram and Twitter. Tom h Fit, go

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Speaker 1: to Fitness disrupted dot com email me through the site.

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Speaker 1: Newest book is The Micro Workout Plan. Thank you to

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Speaker 1: those who have purchased, and if you have and have

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Speaker 1: not left in Amazon review I I just would thank

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Speaker 1: you immensely for doing so. It's huge to authors. And finally,

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Speaker 1: my newest venture is taking all my content from decades

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Speaker 1: in the industry, putting it in one place help you

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Speaker 1: have your best life. That is Tom Holland Fitness dot Com,

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Speaker 1: my virtual gym that is slowly uh slow soft launch.

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Speaker 1: So what we're trying to say, we're almost there. We're

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Speaker 1: getting We're getting up all this content and there will

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Speaker 1: be content for many years to come, new and existing

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Speaker 1: as well. All right, control what you can. How do

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Speaker 1: I end every show? There's three things we control, how

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Speaker 1: much we move, what we put into our mouths, and

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Speaker 1: our attitudes. It's not about your jeans, it's not doing

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Speaker 1: the right thing consistently and believing in yourself. I am

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Speaker 1: Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted. Thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For

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