9 to 5 Wellness
Do you have the knowledge you need to help your organization get the best return on the time and capital invested in employee wellbeing? Are you a busy professional or C-suite leader looking to introduce wellbeing program at your work?
Discover the art and science of helping organizations grow their most important resource, their people. In this podcast we discuss how organizations can utilize the potential of wellbeing programs to deliver high return on investment (ROI) to employers. We talk about the radical impact that holistic employee wellbeing programs can have on overall quality of work and productivity. We will be sharing insights on investing in human capital. Such as:
🌟 What has helped their organizations gain a competitive advantage?
🌟 How they see the future of employee wellbeing?
🌟 Misunderstandings that are out in the corporate market today
🌟 Advice to other leaders to create a happier, healthier, and more productive workplace
Our guests are C-suite leaders, and wellness innovators across the value chain: HR managers, wellness champions, community wellbeing ambassadors, service vendors, and wellness consultants.
9 to 5 Wellness
ALL ABOUT DEXA SCAN
In this episode of the 9 to 5 Wellness podcast we're diving into DEXA scan. You'll findout the limitations of using a bathroom scale and how a DEXA scan offers a detailed blueprint of body composition including metrics like bone mineral density, visceral adipose tissue, and appendicular lean mass index.
Tune in to learn why DEXA scans can be a game-changer for your health journey.
00:00 Introduction to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast
00:38 Host's Personal Update and Podcast Resumption
01:07 Introduction to DEXA Scan
02:44 How DEXA Scan Works
03:39 Addressing Radiation Concerns
05:23 Key Metrics in DEXA Scan
09:17 Practical Benefits and Limitations of DEXA Scan
11:12 Preparing for Your DEXA Scan
11:49 Frequency and Ideal Scores of DEXA Scan
13:07 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
🌟 🌟 🌟 If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com. You can learn more about our programs at: https://toneandstrengthen.com/workshops-trainings/. 🌟 🌟 🌟
My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!
🌟 🌟 🌟 You can learn more about ME- the host at https://www.aeshatahir.com
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Welcome to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast, a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward-thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host, Aisha here.
Hello friends. How are you guys doing? Welcome to the Nine to five Wellness podcast. I'm your host Aisha, a clinical exercise physiologist and a sports nutritionist. I am back after another hiatus. I needed some time to just settle down and do some self-care. I'm feeling akay and doing great now, so I'm ready to get back into the swing of producing podcast episodes for you guys and bringing them to you on a weekly basis.
Today I wanna take a deep dive into a topic that many of you have asked about the DEXA scan for body composition analysis. A couple of my clients have been asking me, why do you recommend DEXA and why not just the bathroom scale? Because the bathroom scale tells only part of the story. That's why. When you hop on a scale. It gives you your total weight and if you have entered your height into the scale, if it's a digital scale, it will calculate your BMI, which is all well and good.
However, it doesn't differentiate between fat, muscle, and bone. A DEXA scan can provide a much more detailed blueprint of your body's composition, including important biomarkers, offering powerful insights into your long-term health and longevity. Understanding your body composition is so crucial for metabolic health and identifying potential hidden risks beyond just your total weight or BMI is important.
Today I'll break down what AD DEXA scan is, how to interpret those complex results, and whether it's a tool you should consider for your own health journey. So let's jump in. We are gonna start with the basics. What exactly is a DEXA scan and how does it work? X-ray stands for dual energy x-ray absorb geometry. A low dose x-ray scanner passes over the body measuring the absorption of x-rays by different tissues. It's a type of low powered moving x-ray that passes two different energy beams through the body.
Denser tissues like bone block, more of these X-rays than softer tissues like fat and muscle, which enables calculation of body composition. An X-ray plate then detects the amount of radiation that passes through, and a computer uses this data to map out and quantify your body's different components.
Now a lot of my clients and patients are a little concerned when they hear about x-ray being used and the amount of radiation they're gonna be exposed to. Initially, I was concerned about radiation level as well. And it's a legit concern for many of my patients.
So I tried to do a lot of research on it, and what I found was radiation levels are very minimal, much less than a standard chest x-ray or even a
Welcome to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast, a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward-thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host, Aisha here.
Welcome to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast, a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward-thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host, Aisha here.
cross country flight. It's considered safe for general use. Though it's typically recommended you don't get scanned too frequently too, right? Once or twice a year is generally sufficient for tracking progress, so you get it right.
It's safe and highly accurate. Now when people get a DEXA scan, they often focus on that single body fat percentage number, which is an important metric, there are other arguably more important metrics to track. So what are those key numbers? I look at three other main metrics for their impact on overall wellness and longevity.
The first one is BMD or bone mineral density VAT or visceral adipose tissue and A LMI, which stands for appendicular Lean Mass Index.
Let's tackle them one by one. First, B-M-D-B-M-D is your bone mineral density, like how dense or thick your bones are. This is the classic use for DEXA scans, primarily for diagnosing osteoporosis or osteopenia, and they've been used for this purpose for years now, which is a major concern as we age.
Especially for women after menopause. Knowing your bone health is foundational to a long, active and healthy life, and it helps guide exercise choices and nutritional strategies that makes sense, right? Strong bones are essential. If you don't have strong bones, you're at an increased risk of falls.
Second metric that I love is VAT. Visceral adipose tissue or visceral fat. In simple terms, it is the fat stored deep within your abdominal cavity surrounding your internal organs. Unlike subcutaneous fat, the jiggly stuff under your skin, visceral fat is highly inflammatory and is strongly linked to chronic health risks like heart disease. Type two diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
A DEXA scan provides an estimate of your VAT , giving you a crucial look. At a hidden health risk that a scale would never reveal. Like yesterday, I saw a patient who was skinny
her physical profile made her seem like totally thin and healthy, but she had a very high visceral fat, so I had to guide her. On how to include proper exercise and nutrition to lower her visceral fat levels visceral fat is a silent alarm bell for your health. Check out my previous episode on visceral fat and its harmful impact on our health, which goes way deeper into this kind of fat and how it is impacting us.
Now the third metric that I like to look at is A LMI , which stands for appendicular Lean Mass Index. It relates to your muscle mass in your arms and legs relative to your height. Maintaining muscle mass is incredibly important for metabolic health strength preventing age-related decline, also known as sarcopenia. If your A LMI is low, it's a clear sign that you need to prioritize resistance training and adequate protein intake in your diet.
I wish I could scream this from the rooftop. So it's not just about being skinny, it's about being strong and structurally sound. We are looking for a healthy balance of all three dense bones, low, visceral fat, and good muscle mass. So we know what a DEXA scan measures.
Now, let's talk practicalities. What about the main benefits and what are the limitations, if there are any, which you guys should know about? Now? The primary benefit of DEXA is that it is highly accurate, so accuracy is one of the. Most important benefit, it is considered the gold standard for body composition testing, much more reliable than bioelectrical impedance scales or bot pods.
The detailed regional analysis allows you to track progress in specific areas, which is great for guiding a fitness plan, and the best benefit of DEXA, in my opinion, is. That it helps you to know if your workouts are actually building muscle where you need it or if your diet is targeting that dangerous, visceral fat or not.
So you can track progress, which I love. It provides objective, actionable data, and data doesn't lie. Now, as with anything else though, there are some limitations. They are very few, but they're there. First, hydration levels and recent meal intake can slightly affect results, so standardizing the pre-scan protocol is key.
Also, results can vary slightly. Also, results can vary slightly between different machine manufacturers, so it's best to use the same facility for follow-up scans to ensure consistency when tracking changes over time. Consistency is key for tracking. I hope that makes sense.
I wanna take some time now to explain what you can expect on the day of the scan. On the day of the scan, you'll be asked to remove all metal items, jewelry belt. Sometimes even some brass that have underwire because it's gonna start glowing on your skin and you don't really want that to interfere with your results.
You lie flat on your back on a padded table and a C shaped arm passes over your body. It's painless, non-invasive, and usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes. How often should someone get a scan? This is one of the questions that one of my clients asked me and I was like, okay, I'll answer it on the podcast for a baseline.
Once is fine to track progress after making significant lifestyle changes, a cadence of every six to 12 months is generally sufficient and provides enough time for measurable. Sustainable changes to occur. And finally, what's an ideal score that's highly individual depending on age, sex, and health goals.
However, general healthy ranges for body fat are typically around 20 to 30% for women and lower for men,
the most important thing is comparing your results to population norms in your age group, and trying to implement lifestyle changes so that you can track your own progress over time. So what I would like you to do is focus on improving those key metrics like your visceral fat.
Which should be lower than before, and your A LMI, which should ideally get higher over time if you are trying to put in the work. So I wanna wrap up today's episode. With the fact that it's clear that DEXA scan is a powerful tool, it helps us move beyond the scale and truly understand our body from the inside out.
That's the most important benefit of Dexy in my view. Knowing your numbers empowers you to make targeted decisions about nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle to support longevity. It's about optimizing your health, not just your appearance, although.
That counts too. If you're interested in learning more, check that show notes for resources on finding a DEXA Scan facility near you, and I would love to hear about your experience. Thanks for listening to the Nine to five Wellness podcast. Remember, health is a journey and knowledge is your best guide.
Thank you so much for listening today. It was so nice chatting with you. Talk soon.
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