15 Apps For Healthy Living
A well-equipped smartphone and a little will power can help you stay healthy. Consider these diagnostic and fitness apps.
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This year, 54.1 million Americans are expected to sign up for gym and fitness club memberships. They spent almost $26 billion on these programs in 2013. By comparison, last year there were approximately 100,000 healthcare apps -- many of them free or inexpensive, according to BI Intelligence. Of these, the top 10 generate 4 million free and 300,000 paid downloads each day and will produce sales of $20 billion or more by 2018.
Even as gym memberships increase, more Americans use smartphones and tablets to get fit and stay healthy, using apps to monitor and enhance their physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
In addition to helping you shed pounds, apps can tell you more about what you're eating. Using apps like MyFitnessPal or Livestrong's MyPlate, you can check out ingredients, count fat and calories, and find healthier alternatives to prepackaged or restaurant options. These tools also have begun to alter what we see on store shelves and restaurant menus. Consider, for example, the recent campaign against Subway's use of azodicarbonamide, and Chick-fil-A's plan to remove Yellow #5, TBHQ (a chemical made from butane) and reduce sodium, among others.
Convenient access to information lets you easily and privately access and tailor exercise programs and routines as well. Devices like Fitbit, Moov, Jawbone Up, and FuelBand, along with apps such as RunKeeper and MapMyFitness let runners, walkers, and cyclists monitor their progress, compete with friends on social networks, and brag about their accomplishments. Other apps add financial incentives, letting you raise money for charity or bet on your own ability to meet self-made goals.
Some app makers contend that inexpensive access to health-focused tools may also reduce overall healthcare costs, by improving awareness, and encouraging people to seek care early, when illnesses are easier and less costly to treat. Apps including iTriage and HealthTap empower users to ask questions about their symptoms, a feature that could reduce the strain on local medical providers. While developers caution against using software as a replacement for a physician's advice, many sites feature testimonials from users who became aware of medical problems through an app.
You also must consider each app's privacy policy. Many -- but not all -- apps include simple statements about how they use collected data. Before providing an app with daily insight into your dietary, exercise, sleep, and medical habits and history, make sure you fully understand and agree with its policy for using, storing, and sharing this information. If you don't, find a competing app. After all, it's your body -- and your data. Now dig into our collection of interesting health and fitness apps.
When CharityMiles users run, walk, or bike, they also raise money for non-profits such as Feeding America or Stand Up to Cancer. Since it tracks only distance, CharityMiles is not the best app for monitoring performance, but it is a great way to raise money for charities without searching for sponsors. Download the iPhone or Android app, pick a charity, and press Start. Bikers earn 10 cents for every mile; walkers and runners earn 25 cents per mile up to the app's $1 million sponsorship pool.
Good health begins with a good night's sleep -- and SleepCycle analyzes sleep patterns to help awaken you at the optimal time. Using your iPhone's accelerometer, the app tracks your sleep pattern each night and maps it over time to show how factors such as alcohol or exercise can affect your rest.
Before heading to an optometrist, check your eyesight using a smartphone or tablet app such as Vision Test 2. This app tests for visual acuity, astigmatism, duochrome, color, and far field vision, and it includes an eye doctor locator, information about eye health, and quizzes. The best part: no eye drops!
Feeling under the weather? iTriage helps you decide whether you need a neurologist, a general practitioner, or just an ice pack. Free for Apple and Android devices, the app lets you check your symptoms and your health records, find a doctor or hospital, research diseases, and, if it's an emergency, call 911.
Simply place your finger over your smartphone's camera, and Azumio's Instant Heart Rate takes your pulse and displays your heart rate on the screen. You can track your rate at rest, while exercising, or over time and share it via social media, and registered users can export data for long-term storage or analysis.
It doesn't replace a professional hearing test, but Play It Down allows iOS users to check out their own hearing as well as the volume of their environment to measure their exposure to noise pollution. Use your own music to make the test more fun.
French startup Kolibree has developed an app that records and wirelessly transfers data about your tooth-brushing patterns to your smartphone. Working in conjunction with Kolibree's "smart toothbrush," the app tracks the duration and coverage area of your brushing to see if areas may be neglected or need a dentist's attention. The app will be available in July 2014, according to Kolibree, which also plans to soon launch a Kickstarter campaign for its Internet of Things personal health offering. The company expects its brush to sell for between $99 and $200, including the free app.
HealthTap, a free iOS and Android app, offers answers from thousands of doctors in the US to users' health questions. About 50,000 physicians answer users' questions (although a disclaimer notes HealthTap "does not give medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment"). An algorithm determines which doctor is most expert and most likely to respond to each question. Physicians receive awards such as reputation scores, user comments, and peer accolades.
MyFitnessPal is a free app that features a nutrition and calorie database of almost 4 million foods, including menu items from popular restaurants. More than 50 million people have used the website and app -- which is available for Apple, Android, Microsoft Windows, and BlackBerry devices -- to lose weight, according to MyFitnessPal. The website and app are linked, so users enter specific food items only once, and both are automatically updated. The app helps users easily determine which supermarket or restaurant foods are the healthiest choices before they purchase them.
Pact combines an app, social media, and cash to hold members accountable for their self-imposed pledges to exercise or eat right. The iOS and Android app counts users' check-ins at gyms and fitness centers via devices such as Fitbits and RunKeeper. Set your own goal -- for example, to exercise every day, log meals on MyFitnessPal.com, or simply eat more vegetables -- and then choose to pay $5 or $10 for each day you miss that goal. If you keep your pact, you'll be paid between 30 cents and $5 per week, once you amass a total of $10 or more. Payouts come from other users who were penalized for not achieving their goals. You won't get rich by using Pact, but you might get healthier.
Fooducate aims to clarify the often-confusing nutritional information listed on packaged foods by grading their ingredients to determine the healthiest products. The company has a free website along with its iPhone and Android apps. It also offers two premium Android versions -- one for gluten allergies, one with additional features.
The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Enterprise's Stress Meditations is a 99-cent iOS app that offers eight relaxation techniques: a body scan relaxation, and meditations in self-confidence, guided imagery, calm mind, loving kindness, letting go, mindfulness, and miracle around us. Exercises are designed to help users reduce the risk of stress-related diseases by worrying less and feeling more empowered.
PumpOne's free FitnessBuilder app for iOS and Android features more than 900 workouts and 7,000 fitness images and videos to help you tone and strengthen your body. Focus on overall strength or target specific muscle groups through pre-programmed or custom plans, then share your achievements via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
Popular fitness app Runkeeper recently updated its Android version to include a Training Tab, complete with training schedule and audio coaching. An updated About Me section includes all your stats and workout history. Both iOS and Android versions of the free app include GPS-based and manual activity tracking, data synchronization with Runkeeper.com, and audio cues, as well as integration with Twitter and Facebook for online sharing and support. Designed for all types of users -- not just runners and cyclists -- Runkeeper has more than 23 million users, the company said.
With Hula, people who have been tested for sexually transmitted diseases can share the "verified results" for help and resources. The app was designed to eliminate uncomfortable conversations about STDs, according to company co-founder and CEO Ramin Bastani. The website includes links to free clinics, doctors, and online providers, and it delivers results to a user's personal health record.
With Hula, people who have been tested for sexually transmitted diseases can share the "verified results" for help and resources. The app was designed to eliminate uncomfortable conversations about STDs, according to company co-founder and CEO Ramin Bastani. The website includes links to free clinics, doctors, and online providers, and it delivers results to a user's personal health record.
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