Smart and Healthy Apps

 January—it’s the traditional time of year to turn our thoughts to resolutions and changes we can make so our lives are more healthy and fulfilling. As often as not these resolutions revolve around better diet, exercise, organization, time and money management.

Most of us look to traditional ways of meeting these goals: a personal trainer, a dietitian, a financial planner. All good efforts, but have you thought about reaching for your smartphone to help you?

I love my smartphone for email, calendar, facebook and organizing my life. Lots of people, including myself, have yet to harness the additional resources that are just at our fingertips in the form of apps designed especially to improve overall health and wellness.

There are literally thousands of health and medical apps out there that can be downloaded in a minute or so. Many are free or may be purchased for just a dollar or two. I find it a bit daunting to choose the best ones, but here’s a recent list from Scientific American, where the apps were evaluated based on functionality, content and customer reviews.

They include Glucose Buddy for diabetes management, Vision Test, for self-administered eye tests to help determine if you need to see the doctor and C25K (Couch to 5K)—a beginners’ workout plan for would-be athletes based on Josh Clark’s running regimen—to help you transition from couch potato to competitor.

Other recommended options include Cancer Trials, which locates clinical trials in your region, Gazelle GPS Cardiovascular Workout Tracker, which uses your phone’s GPS to track progress during workouts, and Fooducate, which gives you more complete nutritional data on a variety of grocery items.

  They also recommend BPMonitor, which lets you monitor important health stats for you and other family members, DepressionCheck assesses your risk for depression, bipolar and anxiety disorders;  iChemoDiary allows you to record your chemo schedule, treatments and symptoms; and Lose It!, which lets you set goals and establish daily calorie budgets.

These apps are just tools to help us take better care of ourselves and alert us to any ongoing health issues that may require a visit to the doctor. And if you are looking for a physician, you need look no further than the pages of our annual Physicians’ Directory included in this issue.

Do you have a favorite health app you’re using? Share it with our readers and me at www.augustamagazine.com at the end of my column. We will all thank you in advance for the recommendation in our quest for a happy and healthy 2012!