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Health Kiosk | BC1 Body Composition Analyzer | CT1 Calorie Tracker | RT3 Tri-axial Research Tracker
 BC1 Body Composition Analyzer Kit |
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How does it work? WHY ASSESS BODY COMPOSITION? Body composition is a recently validated (1) but still emerging science that has become more important in the health and medical communities because it is an accurate way to determine a persons general state of health. For that reason, assessment of body composition is rapidly becoming a component of routine physical examinations. Evidence is accumulating that clearly identifies certain types of body composition as major contributors to the development of disease. Moreover, reliable and consistent measurements of body composition can assist in monitoring the effects of dietary and physical therapies or programs. Weight and appearance alone are deceptive indicators of the body's composition. Measuring body composition, on the other hand, allows individuals to accurately assess their health status. BC1 BODY ANALYZER: AN ACCURATE AND PRACTICAL METHOD: Most of the methods in common medical use for assessing human body composition are impractical for routine consumer use. They include height/weight charts, body mass indexes, girth and circumferences measurements, skin fold measurements using calipers, ultrasound and underwater weighing (2). Of the available methods, only underwater weighing and skin folds are considered accurate enough to be clinically acceptable (2-3). Underwater weighing is tedious, expensive, and is obviously not a consumer friendly technique. The skin fold method is highly subjective, since it depends on the skill of the tester, and assumes there is a relationship between sub-dermal fat and body cavity fat (4). Again, this technique does not lend itself to mass consumer use. It is therefore well accepted that there is a need for an accurate and practical solution that can be used by consumers. To help fill this need Stayhealthy has introduced the BC1 Body Composition Analyzer, which uses bio-impedance technology usually found in expensive clinical devices, but is an inexpensive, easy-to-use, Web-enabled product. WHAT IS THE BIO-IMPEDANCE TECHNOLOGY IN THE BC1 BODY ANALYZER? Living tissue can be described in terms of three electrical characteristics: voltage, current, and impedance. Voltage has been used in useful clinical arts including Electrocardiography (ECG). Current is difficult to use, as generally speaking the current used in any device is very small and is only used as a measure of power. It is easier to measure an endpoint that changes as a result of its interaction with tissue. Impedance is one such endpoint and was first used on biological systems in 1919 and has been in common use in clinical systems since that time. Bio-impedance devices work by measuring the change in electrical resistance in body tissues by using a detectable electrical signal that is passed through the body. Similar indirect measurements are now being made of blood flow, cardiac output, respiratory volume and arterial insufficiency and venous thrombosis. In 1962, it was reported that impedance correlated highly with total body water (5). In 1985, based on ten years of research, it was reported that impedance measurements could accurately predict fat free mass and total body fat (6). The bio-impedance method is based on the principle that the lean body muscular structure that contains virtually all the water and conducting electrolytes in the body provides a good electrical pathway. In contrast, fat or fat-containing tissues make a poor electrical pathway. By inducing a low energy, high frequency signal a measurement of the baseline resistance to flow of electrical current can be made. The resistance measurement relates directly to the volume of the conductor. By repeated measurements, and knowing other parameters such as gender, weight, age, and height proprietary equations have been developed that accurately determine total body water, fat free body mass and total body fat. SUMMARY The BC1 BODY ANALYZER is designed to take these measurements and is Web- enabled so that the values can be downloaded to Stayhealthy.com servers, where individual measurements are displayed in various forms and individualized advice is provided on fitness and health-related subjects customized to the user. Bibliography:
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