Why Medical Professionals Choose The FUTREX

Only Futrex offers fast, repeatable and truly non-invasive measurement of percent body fat on any one at any time.

• Try that with skin fold calipers

  People don't like being pinched
  Caliper results vary widely between testers
  

• And bio-electrical impedance?

  You can't measure anyone with a heart implant or who may be pregnant (no problem with the FUTREX)
  

  And don't forget the BIA pre-test protocol

  Click Here for Information On BIA Pre-Test Protocols

   

As a medical professional you need your Body Composition Analyzer to be many things:

Accurate
Repeatable (Consistent Between Measurements)
Profitable

 

CPT Information

Coding Guideline

Case Study

 

Profitable???? - - -
But Of Course! Let's See How...

Using Body Fat Analysis to Build A Rehab Practice and Expand Patient Care
by Carl Rothschild, DC

I am a relatively successful, "general practitioner" with offices in West Los Angeles, Pasadena, Marina Del Ray and two other offices in Southern California. I have a diverse practice, and specialize in sports medicine and treatment of the spine.

Although these are my specialties, I usually treat anyone who walks through the door -this is a good way for a Chiropractor to stay in practice in Southern California these days. Our primary areas of activity and profitability are:

Chiropractic
Massage
Podiatry
Nutrition
Weight loss

How has my practice remained at the forefront of rehabilitation, fitness and strength while many other Chiropractors are struggling here in California?

My office is constantly promoting Chiropractic and our services at gymnasiums, health clubs, health fairs and other gatherings where physically active people meet, exercise and are in pursuit of fitness, health, rehabilitation and strength. We usually establish a demonstration in a small booth as a "working exhibit," and create a situation where we draw in active people who might be candidates for the diverse services a Chiropractor such as myself can offer them.

Body Fat Analysis
How do we attract their attention and get them to participate in our presentation? Well, we have a little secret. It's called "body fat analysis."

Using a device called a near-infrared body fat analyzer, we provide to all who venture into our area a free analysis of the percent body fat con- tent of their bodies. This, of course, translates directly into relative health and fitness. We have them fill out a form first, providing their name and other vital statistics. The form provides health indicators and most of the time an ailment surfaces. Then we simply sit them down and analyze their body fat.

It takes a minute or two to analyze each person, and then the near-infrared body fat analyzer gives us an attractive and useful printout detailing body fat and lean mass. This printout can provide, in minutes, their percentage of body fat, their lean mass and their water content by extrapolation.

 

Click Here For More Information on Bodyometry Software

 

The analysis can be performed prior to, during and after exercise, and the reading does not vary. This is a compelling presentation.

There are no electrodes to hook up, no disrobing, no fasting and no immersion. The device uses near-infrared technology and a light wand "probe," so you sit the patient down and place the light wand carefully against his or her biceps. You take the reading, which takes about ten seconds, withdraw the light wand and wait for the machine to do the rest. That's it.

Based on the premise that the bicep of the dominant arm is a significant indicator of body fat content for the entire body, the analyzer can provide a useful measure of the patient's body fat percentage -an indicator of the patient's relative fitness. It also indicates the hydration level of the body, measures gains and losses and monitors each individual's progress.

The patients love it, while our nutritionists benefit from it because it is so accurate and dependable.

This setup and demonstration builds tremendous traffic for us. In most cases we will draw four or five times as many prospects as those with set- ups featuring complex equipment with an octopus collection of electrodes that must be fastened to many parts of the body.

In fact, we have even had situations where the lines of people waiting for analysis in our booth were so long that people in nearby booths went to show management complaining that our lines were blocking access to their booths.

Leads to Treatment
All of this, of course, leads to patients coming in the door, and we get quite a few from those who have received the free analysis. One of the keys to attracting patients is the accuracy and repeat- ability of the body fat analyzer. Not only does the equipment provide accurate readings, it does it consistently. This is crucial.

The idea is to transition the prospective patients into the office, and provide a more detailed printout and consultation. When they do, we give them our recommendations for a program that will best serve their individual needs.

Chiropractic and Massage
Happily, many of those we test at a gym or health fair are impressed enough with us in general, and our consultation, that they come to a realization they have a problem and that we have a solution. And in the gymnasium and strenuous exercise environment we are dealing in, you would be right to conclude that many who come to see us need Chiropractic, massage or even podiatry – as well as nutritional and weight loss guidance.

Obviously, we are happy to oblige.

Whether it is rehabilitation, strength, nutrition or weight loss our new patients are seeking, we have professionals on staff who can outline a complete program for them and help guide them toward achieving their goals. Here again, the body fat analyzer is highly useful.

Are we providing real benefit to our patients as a result of drawing them in with our forms of promotion? Of course we are.

First off, if our patients need Chiropractic treatment massage or podiatry, there's a good chance they would have put it off or skipped it all together if we hadn't pointed it out to them. So you can see while we're contributing to a more comfortable life for our patients now, this can also translate into a more healthy future.

Nutrition is Golden
What about strength, weight loss and nutrition in my practice?

First, anybody dieting must understand that you can lose as much weight on a bad diet as you can on a good diet. But weight loss from a bad diet usually leads to a loss of muscle, rather than excess body fat. This saps your strength, is harmful to your health, and should be avoided like the plague.

By using the body fat analyzer and its evaluation of a patient's condition relative to body fat and desirable lean body mass, it is easy for our nutritionists to devise a program that encourages our patients to lose body fat while maintaining or even increasing muscle mass and strengths.

And by monitoring our patients' progress with detailed printouts, we can demonstrate to them how they are doing -graphically -what adjustments need to be made, how they can improve and, of course, if they are failing with their nutritional program.

Actually, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the health risks of having high percent body fat. A recent Surgeon General's report on fitness and health risks clearly shows a direct relationship between low body fat and good health.

Body fat is the extra energy that is ingested but is not used up in daily activities. High levels of body fat cause the body's internal systems to work overtime, significantly increasing the risk of heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, diabetes and certain types of cancers.

Fortunately, body fat is relatively controllable by reasonable eating habits coupled with moderate exercise. How- ever, you need to know more than how much you weigh. You need to know your percent of body fat, and compare it to recommended values. This al- lows patients to steer their health in the right direction.

Body fat analyzers, in promoting our practice, have contributed significantly to the growth of our practice, and I believe, to the health of our patients. We started with one of the first machines available, in the 1980s, then added two more at the beginning of this decade. We recently bought three more.

Here's a good demonstration of how essential body fat analysis is.

We recently sent one of our associates to a new gym without a body fat analyzer. The screener did spinal screenings and general health evaluations, but attracted relatively little interest.

The next time we went back to this gym with a body fat analyzer, he was met with enthusiasm and long lines.

Do I believe in these machines? I certainly do and so will you if you put them to work in your practice.

About the Author
Carl Rothschild, DC, received his BS degree in sec-ondary education from the State University of New York (Stoney Point) and his Chiropractic education from the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC), where he graduated cum laude, was on the dean's list and was chosen as a member of Delta Sigma, the honorary scholastic society. He is a member of the American and California Chiropractic Association and Los Angeles County and Santa Monica Chiropractic Society, the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research and Research Consortia. Dr. Rothschild is a lecturer for the David Singer seminars, and faculty preceptor for the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic. He uses the Futrex near-infrared equipment, for body fat analysis in his practice.

This article first appeared in the February 1998 issue of Chiropractic Economics