As part of American Heart Health Month, the American Heart Association emphasizes the role of full-body scans in providing crucial information on cardiovascular health, as cardiovascular disease remains a major cause of death among women. While the DEXA scan was initially designed to provide helpful information about fitness and bone mineral density, researchers have found new ways to gain insights from DEXA results to better understand health. This article goes into more detail about these findings, showing how DEXA scans can be a useful tool for understanding cardiovascular risk in women.

The American Heart Association Sheds Light on Cardiovascular Disease Among Women

The CDC estimates that about 44% of women living in the United States have heart disease. There are different forms of these conditions, with some posing a greater threat than others. During this year’s Heart Health Month, the American Heart Association is taking a closer look at the rising rate of these conditions among women.

Among female deaths, it’s estimated that about one in every five cases is related to cardiovascular diseases. Yet, women don’t necessarily realize heart disease is the number one cause of death.

During an interview with Dr. Nina Radford, a cardiologist at Cooper Clinic and a research colleague at The Cooper Institute, a representative of the NBC 5 news channel had her DEXA scan taken and analyzed. While Dr. Nina assured the representative that her body composition was good, she emphasized that women are often less likely to participate in resistance training. Without resistance training, women experience muscle loss when they exercise. This reduction in lean mass can have a negative impact on health. Dr. Nina goes into detail about the fact that muscle mass helps with glucose and metabolism, which can improve insulin sensitivity and potentially lead to the prevention of insulin resistance and even diabetes.

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in at least one case, it can save your life”

How DEXA Full Body Scans Can Provide Details About Cardiovascular Risks

Understanding how DEXA scans can be useful is important. Dr. Nina explains that when someone undergoes a DEXA scan, a computerized system creates an image of their composition. While BMI focuses primarily on total body weight, a DEXA scan provides a detailed view of:

●      Fat mass

●      Lean mass

●      Bone mass

This can provide a much more comprehensive overview of fat distribution in the body, particularly in areas with concerns about fatty deposits collecting in the blood circulatory system. These fatty deposits can cause problems with blood flow, as they clog arteries and blood vessels.

For example, the full body scan can provide an overview of how much fat mass has been collected in the abdomen. It’s well known that abdominal fat is particularly dangerous. One study on the “Association of Changes in Abdominal Fat and Cardiovascular Risk Factors” points out that changes in abdominal fat do affect the cardiovascular system.

Women can use this to get a baseline of their body composition and then work with professionals to create a personalized, targeted program that would decrease fat mass while retaining or even increasing lean mass. DEXA scans would also prove useful when it comes to monitoring bone health during a weight loss program.

Final Thoughts

Heart disease is a critical health problem in the U.S. and several other areas of the world. The rate of cardiovascular conditions is alarmingly high among women, and with new insight into how DEXA scans can be used to evaluate the risks, we now have additional measures that women can use. While it can be costly for women to undergo a full body scan, the benefits clearly outweigh the price they would pay to better understand their heart health.

References

https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/about/women-and-heart-disease.html

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/body-scans-reveal-cardiovascular-risk/3765208/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599249/