DEXA Whole Body Scans

Traditionally, DEXA scans are ordered by your health care professional for the assessment of your bone density.  Then by looking at your bone density compared to the bone density of a 30 year adult we can assess your risk of fracture.  This is a valuable tool to utilize as we all age knowing that fractures later in life are often very debilitating or can even be life-threatening. However, at Health Guardian Imaging we utilize a smart body composition DEXA machine which gives important information beyond just your bone density score and fracture risk.  We also provide an assessment of your muscle mass, android/gynoid ratio, and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in additional to several other useful measurements.  Most DEXA scans being used currently do not provide this additional information and are thus giving patients limited utility.

These other assessments which our smart DEXA can make are equally as important if not more important to your ongoing health. For instance, we all know that as we age our bone mineral density will decrease.  However, the decrease in muscle mass is likely more important as it determines our strength to keep doing activities we have traditionally performed, helps with coordination, and when low enough will also increase our risk of falling.  Thus the bone density is the assessment of how likely you are to break a bone but the muscle mass helps asses how likely you are to fall in general.  Muscle mass also gives us feedback on how exercise programs are doing to increase our muscle mass as we age.  Afterall, we exercise to stay fit as we age and having a tool to measure your improvement is very valuable.

Studies have shown the amount of fat we contain in our bodies is not as important as where we store that fat. We now know that having the fat stored around our abdomen and midsection is worse than having the fat stored around our hips from a risk assessment for cardiovascular disease.  This assessment can be accomplished by measuring your android/gynoid ratio which we want to be less than 0.8 for females and less than 1 for males.  Additionally, we know that for people that have fat stored in their midsection or abdomen are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease when the fat is under the muscle around the organs, called adipose fat.  The smart body composition scan can determine the amount of adipose fat you have called the visceral adipose tissue (VAT).  We know that cardiovascular risk is increased above 100-160 cm2 values for the VAT. 

It is recommended that your receive the bone density test annually and that you utilize the body composition study every 3-6 months so that you can plot the best course for yourself with our assistance. The above are only a couple of the tools that we utilize at Health Guardian imaging to ensure that you live not only a long life, but also a healthy life with the best quality of life you can achieve.