This exam is not covered by RAMQ. Because it is categorized as a medical test, a doctor’s prescription is required for DEXA scan.
DEXA Scan (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) is a medical grade test and is considered the gold standard in body composition. It gives you the most precise information about your body fat, muscle, and bone composition, and lets you track changes in body composition over time. Fitness enthusiasts, athletes, and dieter often use body composition scans to get a baseline of where they are now, and to objectively measure their progress.
What is body composition?
Body composition is the set of elements that make up the human body. Among these elements, we find fat mass, “lean” non-fat mass, the quantity of water, the skeleton and the organs. Together they make up the body. Measuring these components in this way is therefore a good indicator of health.
Weight Loss
DEXA helps you monitor your weight loss progress. An initial baseline scan lets you see exactly where you are when you start, and then track how much body fat they are actually losing, and how much muscle you are gaining.
Just using scales often hides progress. Dieters combining diet with an exercise program often mistakenly think they are getting minimal results, because they are adding dense muscle at the same time they are losing fat. And dieters on crash diets, are often getting misleading results because they are losing lean muscle and along with fat.
Body Builders
Body builders on a bulk or a cut, want information on how much muscle they are actually gaining during a bulk, or how much muscle they are losing on a cut.
Getting a DEXA scan lets you see how effective a bulk or cut is in adding muscle. Learn what works for your body, and help dial-in your routine and your macros.
Preparing for competition, you can get a more precise measure of your body fat percentage – so you can more precisely time your cut.
Athletes & Fitness Enthusiasts
As well as using a DEXA Scan for basic body fat measurement, athletes often use the scan to pick up muscle asymmetries between their left and right sides. Muscle imbalances asymmetries are often caused when our sport causes us to favor one side, or when we use improper form that makes our dominant side do more work. These asymmetries throw weight distribution off, cause muscle miscoordination, and create unnatural stresses that lead to injury.
Determine the effectiveness of your fitness habits.
General Health
Getting a baseline measurement of fat, muscle, and bone lets you see where you are and track changes over time. We often lose muscle and bone mass as we age, particularly in the core, and legs. This puts us at greater risk of injury. Having a baseline measurement and tracking changes over time helps identify concerning trends and lets you take preventative action early.
LIST OF ACQUIRED DATA during your DEXA SCAN :
- Total weight
- Muscle mass
- Total fat mass
- Bone density
- BMI
- % fat mass
- Visceral fat mass and %
- Segmental muscle mass (arms / legs / trunk)
- Segmental fat mass (arms / legs / trunk)
- Basal metabolic rate
- Daily caloric need calculation
- Nutritional recommendations
- And more…
Some of the use cases of a body composition test:
- Want to obtain a reliable tool to begin and continue managing your weight.
- Want to know if weight gain or loss is due to a change in fat mass, muscle mass or water.
- Want to optimize your performance and training methods.
- Want to have measurable muscle mass gain goals.
- Want to have measurable fat loss goals.
- Want to have certain data related to the risks of cardiovascular diseases
- Want to modify your diet to improve your health
- Want to make sure your bone density is normal for your age
- Want to optimize your physical therapy treatments following an injury
- Want to better your diabetes or cardiovascular problems
- Want to monitor your body parameters to stay in the healthy zone
What type of equipment do you use?
Radiomedic uses the lastest medical grade DEXA scanner. The device is produced by GE healthcare and the model type is the Lunar Prodigy Advance. This is the same equipment used by some of the biggest university research centers in the world, including the one used by McGill University.
Why the DEXA method rather than a test on a bioelectric impedance scale?
Many sports centers and training centers sell body composition analyzes on bioelectric impedance scales. This method simply does not offer the precision and accuracy of DEXA. For example, the same person who takes this test twice a few minutes apart on a bioelectric impedance scale will have results with differences of 5 to 10%. Apart from its low reproducibility, its accuracy leaves something to be desired with margins of error of 1-2 kg compared to around 200g for DEXA. An equally major difference is the absence of bone density assessment using the bioelectrical impedance method. Evaluation of the skeleton is essential since it supports all the other tissues of the body. This analysis therefore makes it possible to determine whether calcium/vitamin D supplements or medication are necessary for the health of your skeleton. Body composition analysis by DEXA is the “gold standard”
PROCEDURE
It is a painless examination with no side effects. While you are lying on the table, the arm of the machine will slowly pass over the body sending low dose x-rays and records the data. The exam lasts approximately 10 minutes. A report is sent to you and your doctor the same day.
PREPARATION
No food or liquids at least 4-6 hours prior to the exam. Simple instructions will be emailed to you at booking.
Contraindication: Do not undergo this exam if you are pregnant.
If you underwent other exams during the same period, it is essential that you allow time to pass between these and your body composition test.
– Nuclear medicine: wait 7 days
– Fluoroscopy (digestive exam using barium): wait 15 days
– CT scan using iodine: wait 7 days
– If you take calcium supplements: stop 48 hours before the exam
COST
95$ (No applicable taxes)