The Modern Health Check

They're opening a new fitness center at my office, and the governing agency (MediFit) is providing health checks for all potential guests. I've had a number of these checks in the past, but this one was interesting for a couple of reasons.

After checking my normal health data points (height - 72", weight - 174 lbs, blood pressure - 124/80, resting heart rate - 60 bpm), the trainer busted out some sort of ultrasonic thickness (UT) testing machine. I've had experience with these in engineering applications (e.g., to determine the wall thickness of pressure vessels, etc.), but I've never seem them used in any sort of fitness check. In any case, the trainer made a mark on my arm after measuring a certain distance down my bicep from my armpit. The "near-infrared interactance" gadget was then pressed on the spot for a few seconds - and successfully determined my body fat composition (11.3%) and body water composition (64.3%). It was much easier than the caliper method I've experienced in the past - and it bypassed my inability to participate in bioelectrical impedance tests due to metallic implants.

In analyzing my cholesterol, they measured the three typical values: total cholesterol (134), HDL (47) and LDL (75). The desired values for total and LDL were <200 and <100, respectively. The HDL value, however, had to be analyzed by looking at its relationship to the total value; the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL should be below 4.5. (Mine was 134/47 = 2.9.)

I came away from the health check impressed with how much information they were able to give me on my physical state in only about 5 minutes.