Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis is a scan which measures how much body water you have. It does this by running small currents (which you cannot feel) through 8 electrodes which we attach to your wrist and hand, and your ankle and foot.
By running a small current at different frequencies through you, and seeing how long it takes the current to get to the other electrodes we are able to estimate the amount of water contained in your body, and where it is, inside or outside the cell.
With this information we are able to do three things:
- estimate overall body composition. Note that this measurement is not as accurate as DEXA, and this scan should usually be done in conjunction with a DEXA Scan, or with a DEXA scan to guide the results.
- It is able to quantify changes in Lean mass (from a DEXA Scan) and say whether the change has been because of increased Skeletal Muscle Mass, Intracellular Water, or Extracellular water.
- It is able to assess the overall health of your cells. It measures which by seeing how much integrity your cell walls have. If they have high integrity this is a good sign over overall health, if they have poor integrity, this might be a sign of some disfunction.
