DEXA Scan
Understand your body …. Change your life!
Body Composition
Utilising the difference in absorption of high energy and low energy photons by different elements of the body, DEXA scanning can precisely measure the amount of bone, fat, and lean tissue in the body.
Alternatives to DEXA (BMI, bioimpedance scales such as Tanita and InBody, BodPod and Hydrostatic weighing), provide inaccurate and misleading results.
Body Composition analysis using the DEXA scanner exactly measures:
- Total body fat percentage
- VAT (Visceral Adipose Tissue)
- SAT (Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue)
- Regional lean muscle, fat, and bone mass distribution between different body regions
- Sarcopenia risk
VAT
(Visceral Adipose Tissue or Visceral Fat)
A well-established predictor of cardiovascular risk, metabolic syndrome and the risk of several cancers including breast cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer.
VAT is associated with impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, abnormal lipid metabolism and metabolic syndrome.
DEXA allows us to measure your body’s unique physiological response to your diet and your training regime. It can map and localise fat loss and muscle gains to specific body areas, for aesthetics, body composition and for optimisation of your health.
Bone Density
Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones become fragile and depleted of bone mineral, leading to a higher risk of fractures than normal bone. Globally 1 in 3 women, and 1 in 5 men will experience an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime.
These “fragility” or “minimal trauma” fractures can occur even after a minor bump or fall. Common fracture sites include lumbar spine, hips, upper arm, wrist, ribs, and forearm. Osteoporosis has no signs or symptoms until a fracture occurs. It’s often referred to as the “the silent disease.”
Our full body DEXA scanner can accurately measure the bone mineral content of your entire skeletal system and enable the early detection of osteopaenia and osteoporosis. This can lead to interventions that optimise bone mass and prevent fractures.
There is a particular emphasis on the high fracture areas including the lumbar spine and both hips.
DEXA scans are safe as they utilise a very low level of x-rays (less that a tenth of that used in a normal chest x-ray)
A number of factors increase the risk of osteoporosis including:
- Gender (more common in women)
- Age
- Family history
- Low calcium intake
- Low vitamin D levels
- The medical use of corticosteroids
- Early menopause
- Low testosterone
- Coeliac disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Thyroid or parathyroid disease
- Chronic disease – Rheumatoid arthritis, chronic liver or kidney disease
- Some medications for epilepsy, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and depression
- Low levels of physical activity
- Smoking
- Excessive alcohol intake
- Thin build or excessive weight (some hormones associated with obesity may play a role in the development of osteoporosis).
