Published: July 18, 2007 09:59 pm         

Health Matters: Machine helps find your body mass index

TERRE HAUTE — Where there’s a DEXA machine, there’s a body mass index scan. DEXA, which stands for Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, checks for osteoporosis, which is a decrease in bone density and bone mass. But it can also do other things.

“Basically,” says Julie Manning Dooley, practice manager of all kinds of departments at AP&S Clinic, “it tells you your total fat composition.”

So? Well, it has all kinds of applications, including weight-reduction treatment, growth hormone treatment, primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism, anabolic steroids therapy, anorexia, Cushing’s syndrome, exercise, muscular dystrophy, disorders such as AIDS and cancer, and malabsorptive syndromes. It can also be used to determine the water content of body tissues in situations such as kidney disease.

Knowing where fat is located is also useful when it comes to determining cardiovascular disease risk, glucose metabolism and insulin resistance, Dooley says.

But a lot of people just use it to get a baseline before beginning a weight loss and/or exercise program to determine how they’re progressing, in which case your insurance won’t cover it. However, it’s only $75 for a scan at AP&S. Appointments are made through the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at (812) 242-3115. It’s OK, men: You can get one, too.

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“Exercise,” they tell you. Exercise to lower your risk of getting Type 2 diabetes. Exercise for heart health. Exercise for mental health. It seems that whatever ails you, one of the recommendations is to exercise.

Now there’s another reason to exercise: stroke prevention. In a study that began in Iceland 40 years ago, called the Reykjavick Study, researchers found that men who exercised or played sports in their 40s and 50s experienced a decrease in the risk of having strokes ranging from 50- to 70 percent, depending on the area of the brain.

While women who exercised experienced a decrease in the risk of stroke, it wasn’t as high as that in men, ranging from 25- to 50 percent. Data were presented at a recent meeting of the International Society for Vascular Behavior and Cognitive Disorders in San Antonio, Texas.

No, you don’t have to exercise 24/7. The researchers defined exercise as engaging in physical activity for one or more hours a week. That should be quite doable for most of us.

While exercise may not cure the common cold — that I know of anyway — it seems to be helpful in lowered your risks in an ever-expanding list of ailments. In short, it couldn’t hurt. It might even help. So put those walking shoes on, join in a game of soccer, go swimming or something and start lowering all of those health risks.

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A skull and crossbones on iPods? Maybe not, but they can cause some damage, and not just permanent hearing loss from having the volume too high.

A letter published in the July 12 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine tells of a 37-year-old man listening to his iPod while out jogging in a thunderstorm. Seems that lightening struck a tree next to him. The man landed about 8 feet from the tree, with second-degree burns on his chest and left leg, and there were burns that began on his chest and traveled up his neck and sides of his face, ending where the earphones from the iPod were positioned. The insides of his ears were burned, membranes were perforated, and his lower jawbone was broken on both sides.

Oh, and he experienced severe hearing loss.

What are the chances? Admittedly, pretty low. Just in case, however, you might want to leave it at home if it’s storming.

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All bathroom doors should open out. Most people say they wash their hands before leaving the bathroom, but they’re not all being honest. While 91 percent of adults asked said they washed their hands after using the bathroom, only 82 percent were found to do so when observers loitered around in bathrooms around the country to do a count.

In the battle of the genders, women won out, with 90 percent of them washing their hands compared to only 75 percent of the men.

The worst place when it came to hand-washing was Turner Field in Atlanta at 74 percent, with New York City’s Penn Station close behind at 79 percent. The best place? Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, where 89 percent of the people washed their hands before leaving the bathroom.

When you do wash your hands, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says to use warm water and soap and rub your hands together for 20 seconds—about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice. (Sing it to yourself, please.) And shut off the faucet with the paper towel you used to dry your hands. No soap and water? Hand sanitizer will do in a pinch.

But then there’s that bathroom door. That’s why I say bathroom doors should open out; so you can bump it open with your elbow or something. You may have washed your hands, but what about the last person who touched that knob, lever or bar? Especially if you’ve been to an Atlanta Braves game.