One of the unique tools that we have at the San Francisco Institute for Integrative and Regenerative Medicine is an Inbody 770 Body Composition Analyzer that measures Bio-Impedance, which is based on the amount of resistance that your body provides to an electrical current that is passed through your hands and feet. There are many scales that purport to do this but only the Inbody 770 is actually measuring your body, without using calculations that are based on a population average.Major research institutions like Stanford, UCSF and Mayo use this specific device for looking at fluid distribution in Heart Failure and Dialysis patients and most professional sports teams use this for optimizing their players potential.
Bio-impedance allows us to accurately detect Muscle mass, differentiate between subcutaneous and visceral fat, look at intra-cellular to extracellular fluid concentrations and only the most advanced machines are able to accurately calculate Phase Angle, which is a marker of Cellular permeability/integrity. The Inbody is able to calculate each of these for your whole body as well as each individual limb and the torso separately. This allows you to track your progress with your fitness routine, establish a baseline when you are in your peak fitness so you can reference it with your health regimen or provide another metric of healing from an injury.
With an injury, we will see a decrease in Phase angle (cellular integrity) and in most cases we will be able to detect increase extra-cellular fluid indicating swelling. In some cases, we may see a subtle difference that could indicate that we should take a closer look at the biomechanics of the side showing up abnormal.
Bio-Imepdance Analysis for detecting body composition has traditionally been used in the realm of athletic trainers focused on modifying your physical activity regimen. In the hands of an Integrative and Regenerative Medicine physician, body composition analysis appears more as a reflection of exercise in the context of hormonal, musculoskeletal, nutritional, gastro-intestinal and metabolic health.
For instance, Body Fat and Muscle mass can be dramatically affected by malabsorption happening due to imbalances in the gut flora and food sensitivities. Correcting these variables based on functional medicine testing will be much more important than changing an exercise regimen. Likewise, uncontrolled blood sugar levels could be the most significant factor effecting visceral fat. When it comes to phase angle, it is more of a reflection of inflammation in the body, which can be due to chronic immune stimulation in the digestive tract, untreated Sleep Apnea, life stress, deconditioning from lack of exercise, hormone imbalance, over exposure to toxins with lack of detox support, metabolic stress from over consumption of refined grains and fructose, and much more.
The Inbody 770 allows us to get an overall metric of your health that is easy to track as we work on optimizing your body through an Integrative and occasionally,when injured, Regenerative Medicine approach to healing. The device automatically exports your data to a website that has an associated app for Mobile devices so you can track your progress and access that data easily.
In the age of personalized medicine, a blend of innovative and comprehensive testing can give us insight into your unique anatomy and physiology. This can provide clinically relevant data in order to optimize health regimens towards a positive state of health. In many cases, the interventions necessary to address the variables affecting our data requires unique treatment protocols, tailored to you. The San Francisco Institute for Integrative and Regenerative Medicine is dedicated to providing this service and leading the way towards a medicine of the future that is personalized, preventative and comprehensive.
You can learn more about Body Composition Analysis on the Inbody blog:
https://www.inbodyusa.com/blogs/inbodyblog