What do you need to know about a DEXA scan?

A DEXA scan is a low radiation body composition scan that tells us about your body composition, as in how much fat and muscle you have, and also the distribution of the fat, whether it's subcutaneous or more concerningly based around organs, something we refer to as visceral fat. Additionally, DEXA scans have traditionally been used to look at your bone mineral density, how strong your bones are, and this is something particularly important in postmenopausal women, where we worry about osteoporosis. The scan itself is really very simple. It involves you lying on a bed for 10 minutes while a camera, in essence, passes over your body over two sweeps or so. There are no needles involved and the results are available pretty much immediately. The results allow us to look at your body composition and then formulate a plan for your exercise, nutrition and bone health.