Do you know your bone density? 2-8-26

Dayna Culwell
Feb 13
4 min read

Bone Density Scan

Do you know what your score is?

Hey there! I am excited to share with you my experience this morning at Live Lean in Westlake. They do DEXA Bone Density Exams as well as a full a Muscle Mass analysis. This was a follow up to my previous scan in 2023. I learned so much! It's so important that we learn as much as we can about our bodies in order to gracefully navigate the next chapter. Even research in Women's sports is finally showing interest. While viewership is soaring, research for women's sports injuries has been less than 10% of all studies. That is hopefully about to change. Finally, I'm sending a little love your way. Scroll to the bottom for the Valentine's Sweetheart Dance this Saturday.

Measuring Total Body Mass

The first thing LiveLean measures is your Total Body Mass which is the sum of fat, lean, and bone mineral content.

They then measured the percentage of fat and lean tissue in each region of the body. The Android region refers to belly fat and is associated with several types of metabolic diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. It's often referred to as the "Apple shape". Luckily, my greatest percentage of fat and lean tissue was in the gynoid region which refers to hips and thighs. My shape is often referred to as the "Pear shape". Where your body stores fat is an important predictor of potential health.

Discover More how Visceral Fat affects you

My Personal Body Scan: Curves and all

The scan in orange measures Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT). The ideal VAT is .0 to 52. Mine was a very healthy .38. What a wonderful sense of relief! All that hard work using resistance training with yoga and pilates is paying off. The skeleton on the right is showing orange to represent lean tissue while the yellow represents fatty tissue.

The DEXA total body bone density also compares your scores to the general population.

Schedule a DEXA Scan

Yes, the skeleton above is actually me. The skeleton on the left represents bone. Can you see the little curve in my low back? See the curve in the neck? Notice how my right hip and my right ribs are higher? Plain as day in this scan. While we can't control how my bones are put together, we can work to keep these bones as healthy as possible. Now, the picture below shows The Total Body Scan which measures bone density: An excellent Total Body Bone Density Score for my age group is just at 1.0. Anything above that is cause for celebration. Mine was 1.171. Again, I am relieved and motivated to keep up the yoga, CoreFirst bands and pilates. I invite you to join me in this endeavor.

This just goes to show you that risk factors like scoliosis doesn’t have to be a prelude to osteoporosis. But do stay on top of your scores. You can enter the LiveLean portal at any time to access your scores. Our bones are living creatures and need nutrition. Feed them with a good diet and a good dose of yoga and pilates.

DEXA allows doctors to accurately track your bone health over time and compare it to a healthy young adult.

DEXA can detect tiny reductions in bone density. This allows for the diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis before a fracture actually occurs.

DEXA produces an extremely precise calculation of bone mineral density (BMD).

DEXA uses an exceptionally low radiation dose—roughly one-tenth the amount of a standard chest X-ray.

DEXA machines at LiveLean can also measure body composition, showing your distribution of fat and lean muscle mass, which I highlighted earlier.

Better Research to Benefit Female Athletes

As thousands of female athletes take the world stage in Milan to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics, a group is investing more than $50 million to revolutionize their careers by closing the gaps for women in sports medicine research.

Find out more about Research for Female Athletes

American Skier Lindsey Vonn has had multiple knee injuries throughout her career: tears to her medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments at the 2013 World Championships, then a complete ACL tear later that year which forced her to pull out of the 2014 Winter Olympics, and a lateral collateral ligament tear in 2018 that led to her announcing her retirement. Back in the race, at 41, she sustained a 100% rupture of her ACL in her left knee, along with a bone bruise and potential meniscal damage, following a crash in a World Cup race in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on January 30, 2026.

Women are significantly more likely to suffer knee injuries and are two to eight times more likely to tear their ACLs in comparison to men, according to Yale Medicine. Prior studies have shown that women have different physiology that might lead to the increased risk and fluctuating hormone cycles have also been attributed as a potential factor.

Relative energy deficiency, a syndrome that occurs when athletes are not getting the right level of fuel for the calories they burn, is also an area where research has not asked the right questions for female athletes.

Recently, the Women's Health, Sports & Performance Institute secured over $50 million to fund this research — a vital piece of the puzzle, as Dr. Ackerman, former Team USA rower and co-founder of the institute explains: “Women are expensive to study. Studying those changes in hormones can be really time-consuming, and so it was easier to just not think about it. And time has come for us to think about it. We don’t care how hard it is. We know that it’s really important, and we know that the athletes are asking for it.”