While no single test can give a complete picture of health, some tests are unquestionably a better part of looking at overall health.
Body composition testing using a 4 lead device (as opposed to handheld or stand-on body fat meters) can tell you how well hydrated you are, your body fat, your BMR (calories burned at rest) and how healthy your individual cells are.
Another measure it gives it a value called phase angle. While those who are not electricians can have a hard time grasping the technical stuff, the simple idea is that phase angle values give us an idea of how likely we are to survive bad stuff that happens to us–cancer, surgery, dialysis, AIDS, etc…
The higher the phase angle, the better. This particular study adds weight to the use of phase angle to determine how likelihood of survival with cancer. Specifically:
- Patients with a phase angle in the lower 5th percentile had ower nutritional and functional status, lower quality of life and increased mortality.
- The phase angle was also a stronger indicator of 6-month survival than were malnutrition and disease severity.
In other words, the standard indicators of cancer survival were not as good as something as simple as checking phase angle.
Call our office if you’d like to have this test done. It’s simple, quick and inexpensive ($25).