What is a DEXA scan?
What is a DEXA scan?
The short and sweet explanation is:
DEXA (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) scans provide a precise analysis of your bone mineral density, fat mass, and muscle mass. They are most commonly utilised for baseline measurements and to track the progress of treatments and training changes.
What does it measure?
- Total body mass (overall weight)
- Fat mass (how many kilograms of fat you have)
- Lean mass (muscle, organs, and other non-fat tissue)
- Bone Mineral Content (amount of bone mineral)
Who are DEXA scans for?
- Anyone over 18 yrs old who would like to find out their baseline bone mineral density, so that it can be compared post training, after diet changes, or later in life
- Someone focusing on wait loss, to track changes in visceral fat
- Low bone density risk populations. For example, women over 65 years of age and men over 70, those who have had a fracture over 50 years old, people with rheumatoid arthritis, or osteoporosis in the family history
Is getting a DEXA scan harmful?
On average, people in Australia are exposed to about 1.5 millisieverts (mSv) of natural background radiation per year from cosmic rays, radon gas, and naturally occurring radioactive materials. A modern DEXA scan exposes you to about 0.001 to 0.004 mSv of radiation.
For some comparisons:
- an X-ray is about 0.1 mSv
- a dental X-ray is about 0.005 mSv
- 10-20 hours of flighting per week for a year could expose you to over 1 mSv per year
- flying from London to Singapore to Melbourne would be 0.042 mSv (= 10+ Dexa Scans)
Scan Preparation
We won’t do a DEXA scan if you are or suspect you could be pregnant, or if you’ve had contrast material injected for imaging purposes (CT scan etc) in the past 48 hours.
It is best that you don’t do lots of exercise in the couple of hours before a scan. You will need to remove all metal from your person, so it’s best to wear something without any metal buttons, zips, underwire etc.
Metal inside your body such as a joint replacement, screws etc can be scanned around, so ensure you notify us before we start.