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Body Composition Analysis (BCA) & Cellular Health
Most people are aware that when it comes to health and fitness, the number displayed on your scales or your BMI is a small, and often inaccurate, part of the story.
That's where our top-of-the-range SECA body composition analyser comes in; it offers a much more comprehensive picture of your body's make-up. From this you can make better decisions about your health, fitness, and aesthetic goals.
Unlike standard consumer fitness trackers, our SECA body composition analyser has been built specifically for medical, clinical, and physiological practices. Having been exhaustively validated against clinical "gold standards" such as whole-body MRIs and the 4-Compartment model, it ensures precise readings that you can rely upon.
The full gamut of measurements include:
- Fluid Management: It Differentiates between Total Body Water (TBW), Extracellular Water (ECW), and Intracellular Water (ICW). This is highly useful in inflammation control, nephrology, cardiology, and oncology to detect hidden water retention or dehydration.
- Mass Analysis (Fat, Muscle, and Water): Its Body Composition Chart (BCC) plots fat mass versus fat-free mass. This allows you to see exactly whether weight changes stem from fat loss, muscle growth, or fluid shifts.
- Cellular Health (BIVA & Phase Angle): Our SECA analyser uses Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA) to provide us with a visual plot your hydration status and cell mass. From this, we derive a parameter called Phase Angle which we use to assess your cells' integrity and health status.
- Visceral Fat: Our SECA machine calculates your Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT - deep belly fat) volume, providing essential data for assessing risk of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, systemic inflammation and managing obesity.
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When BCA is used
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Metabolic Approach to Cancer
A critical piece of equipment necessary to ensure that the correct body composition is maintained at all times and any propensity for loss of lean mass can be spotted early.
Weight Management
Whatever the reasons might have been for excess weight, monitoring body composition throughout any serious process for its long-term reduction is essential. This ensures that fat mass is reduced; not muscle mass.
Sports Medicine
For any athlete, maximising performance and reducing rehabilitation after injuries is the holy grail. Our SECA body composition analyser can segmentally monitor your mass; left side to right, arms to legs and torso, so any asymmetry that you have or are developing can be detected and corrected before you even notice.
Healthy Longevity and Personal Wellness
The extensive data provided by our SECA BCA is used as a prognostic marker for tracking your ongoing vitality, ageing (or reversal of), and recovery from illness or injury. It's the indispensable tool in the biohackers toolbox.
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Why Arden Forest Wellness
State-of-the-art, medical-grade, SECA body composition analyser.
Measurements taken by trained professionals ensuring safety and personalised care.
Analysis of measurements undertaken between yourself and our trained staff.
Totally holistic, wellness approach.
Proven results; trusted by patients.
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The BCA Process
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- In the privacy of one of our consultation rooms, we will commence with a chat about your goals and reasons for wanting BCA.
- We will then ask you to slip your shoes off and position yourself on our stadiometer - posh name for height-measuring device.
- At this time, we will ask you to pull up any baggy tops you might be wearing so that we can take a waist measurement.
- We will then ask you to slip your socks off and stand on the BCA analyser.
- The analyser will take your weight and our member of staff will enter your height.
- We will then ask you to hold the metal handles and stand as still as you can whilst the analyser confirms a good contact with your hands and feet at which point the analysis will begin.
- The body composition analysis takes between one and two minutes during which you should maintain keeping as still as possible. The analyser's progress is displayed on the screen.
- When the analysis is complete, our member of staff will ask you to step off the analyser at which point you can put your shoes and socks back on.
- Together with our trained member of staff, we can then take look at your results and tell you what they show.
- The whole analysis and consultation will take about 30 minutes after which you can take a printed copy of your results away with you.
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BCA Frequently Asked Questions
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- I have just had a knee replacement will the analyser still give correct results?
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Yes, body composition analysis works after a knee replacement, but the metal implant can interfere with the accuracy of certain testing methods.
During the test, the analyser sends a harmless, low-level electrical current through your body. Because the metal implant changes the electrical conductivity in that specific leg, it can slightly skew the results. However, SECA and ourselves are actively researching any slight adjustments that we need to make to the settings to track net fluid changes and overall trends.
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- I have breast implants will the analyser still give correct results?
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It will be close. Body composition analysis still works with breast implants, but the absolute results will be slightly skewed. This is because silicone and saline do not conduct electricity like natural body tissue, usually causing a slight overestimation of body fat content.
That said, a SECA body composition analysis will still be extremely useful for looking at markers such as water content, muscle mass and distribution, cell health, visceral fat etc.
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