Healing better with BIA

04 april 2018 - Exercising is without a doubt good for our health. Not only does regular physical activity positively affect our body and psyche, it also reduces the risk of a variety of illnesses. But exercise also has its downsides. Injuries to ligaments, tendons, muscles and fractures are commonplace among professional and amateur athletes. This is usually due to insufficient warm-ups, overstraining, incorrect posture and too much external force. In competitive sports, soft-tissue injuries are particularly common. While the length of recovery is usually irrelevant in amateur sports, downtimes for professional athletes can have a significant effect on their career. In order to prevent this, athletes and their doctors should monitor their recovery closely in order to heal as fast as possible, continue their training and restore their competitive ability. Sonography and magnetic resonance imaging are the best methods for diagnosing and classifying soft tissue injuries. After the diagnosis, bioimpedance analysis (BIA) using the seca mBCA provides an easily accessible, less expensive and non-invasive method for measuring physical changes and monitoring an athlete’s rehabilitation during their recovery. The seca mBCA has been medically validated and corresponds to the respective gold standard when measuring individual body compartments. The smallest changes in body composition can be detected, which makes choosing the right therapy much easier.

The benefits of the seca mBCA are best illustrated by the example of a 26-year-old football player who sustained an injury during a match. The football player’s Achilles tendon ruptured and his doctor decided to treat it by using a form of conservative therapy, which required him to take a break from football for several weeks. The subsequent recovery was regularly monitored using the seca mBCA to determine the optimal time for when he could resume his regular training and participate in matches again. During the 22-week rehabilitation, his body weight remained seemingly the same. Yet, the BIA was able to discover extensive physical internal changes.

In fact, his relative fat mass increased in the training-free interval, while the proportion of muscle mass decreased. Despite his stable weight, there was an unfavorable shift in his overall body composition. The subsequent training reversed this trend. By analyzing the athlete’s body composition, his physiotherapist was able to determine the relative muscle content in the individual limbs and thus better adjust his training. By the end of the rehabilitation, his body composition deviated only slightly from his prior condition before he sustained the injury. Thanks to the regular bioimpedance analysis and individual physiotherapy he was able to successfully re-enter and continue his sport.

The seca mBCA supports the recovery of competitive athletes by making treatments easier to adjust to each individual patient. The information provided can be used to optimize and shorten rehabilitation and determine the optimal time for when athletes – whether professional or amateur - can return to their sports.

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