Skeletal muscle mass is the weight of the muscles in our body. This study out of Greece was looking to find out if a higher skeletal muscle mass was a positive factor for future cardiovascular benefits in patients currently free of cardiovascular disease.

They tested the patients and then reassessed the patients 10 years later. A study of this kind had never been done before. This is important because it eliminated the concern that cardiovascular disease had actually been the cause of a decrease in skeletal muscle mass.