The Best Health Apps
The Best Apps To Improve Health
Technology is evolving and we have access to numerous apps. There are several apps that empower individuals with easy access to advice and support. I’ve tried many apps, but limit my recommendations based on the best performing apps and those which help regulate and track health factors that should be important to everyone.
Mobile phones play a significant role in everyone’s day-to-day life, however, our exposure to constant artificial light can be detrimental to our overall health and that’s why, if you’re going to use your mobile, be selective and make it worthwhile with my favorite health apps below. In no particular order.
Dminder
Obsessed with Vitamin D? This is an app that can give you a decent estimation of how much vitamin D you can synthesize on your skin from sunlight while preventing sunburn. The app considers the following: cloud coverage, skin type, the clothes you wear and geographical location.
Circadian
If you want personalized insight into the light environment of your surrounding, download Circadian. The app informs the user of the timing of sunrise and sunset or when UVA or UVB shows up. It also provides general advice linked to the time of day by providing insight into the best time to train, study, etc.
HRV4Training
An app to use if you want to measure and track your heart rate variability via your phone camera using your fingertip or polar chest strap. It provides valuable information about an individuals parasympathetic nervous system and will help you discover how your body responds to training and stress.
Iris
A program/software to download onto your laptop or desktop to help deal with artificial blue light exposure and flicker from LED screens. The program is $10 and is significantly important for brain health since sleep and hormones are constantly being impacted by blue light exposure.
You can adjust the setting of night mode and day mode accordingly. While mobile phones have night mode, Iris can’t be beaten.
Cronometer
One of the best nutrition apps available. It not only helps people accurately track calories but also focuses on nutrition by giving users a more in-depth analysis of micronutrients, amino acids and fatty acids. You can easily add recipes and just use them occasionally. As with other nutrition apps, they’re only an estimation of food and correspond to the detail you choose from the listing available.
Oura
An app that complements the Oura ring, bringing even more awareness and insight to your sleep phases (deep, REM, light), cardio and nervous system. I’ve been using Oura Ring for over 4 years and it has been a very valuable purchase.
BreezoMeter
An app that provides details and insight into local pollution levels in major cities around the world. It also helps with pollen and other seasonal allergies or wildfires. It can provide data of the air quality index to your specific country's format or give its own algorithm version. If you live in a big city or want to know the best times to exercise or travel outdoors, this is the one for you.
Calm
I’m sure you’ve heard of Calm - a meditation app that provides a guided approach for those that find it difficult to simply stop thinking or find it difficult to meditate. If you often deal with feelings of stress and anxiety, download Calm and let it guide you.
LightMeter
Do you want to know the brightness or luminous (aka lux) in your environment? Then the LightMeter app is a great addition to your phone, which you can use in a similar way to taking a photograph. The LightMeter app helps you to become more aware of the light deficiency in our environment compared to outside and you can really see the difference during the day with variations.
Food Intolerances
An app for those with food sensitivities and intolerances. It guides you with readily available information about whether a certain food contains histamines, oxalates, nickel, sucrose, sorbitol, lactose, fodmap, gluten, salicylates, tyramine and other compounds.
The Food Intolerance app is useful to navigate and discover your comfort zone in terms of histamine limits. Just remember - no food is exactly the same. The values are as an average, which is helpful. The app also has a unique medication section, which is very helpful for those with severe histamine issues with both inhibitors and liberators.
Think Dirty
The Think Dirty app allows you to scan the barcodes of products and raises awareness about any toxins in the products. Substances can enter your body through your skin and inhaling cleaning products can affect your health/give rise to problematic health issues. This app is perfect for scanning household, personal care and beauty products and learning what’s in what and which toxins are worth staying away from. The app also provides a rating system for each product, which is useful.
Zero
An app which helps the user commit to fasting with the use of a countdown/timer. For those that want to track or set personal records, Zero is useful. For newbies and people who like or need the extra adherence, it can be helpful to know where you are and how long is left.
Pomodoro
This app allows you to apply the technique of Pomodoro, which is essentially timing protocols. We typically assimilate learning or movements into short time periods of intense focus and learning.
This app allows you to have a stopwatch for timing intervals and keep you in check. You can personalize the timers and you can keep track of your progress on their log/statistics system.
White & Pink Noise:
Struggling to sleep due to noise around you, while on a plane/train, or if there is a conversion about calories in and out? Then use this app to calm your brain down.
Additionally, listen to it before bed when you're winding down. The music/noise itself is fairly natural like the wind. Pink noise specifically targets brainwaves and stabilizes sleep (study). You can also find other sounds on the app, like white noise and chill music.
An app and program that allows you to consolidate news or in my case research papers. It downloads the URL, page or PDF and keeps it on file, ready for your access at any time.
Oak
A breathwork app that has several options in terms of types of breathwork - meditate, power breathing, and sleep. There are various skill levels that you build up to. You can view your progress with the growth tab whilst it also presents the interactive numbers of other like-minded people using the app.
Flo
One of the most advanced and highly reviewed apps for female cycle health. The app brings in as much personalization available to help support and keep track but also improve your cycle with foundational advice. The Flo app uses your symptoms during the cycle at key dates, takes into consideration your menstrual flow, weight, sleep, water levels, sexual activity, sex drive, vaginal discharge and also takes into consideration travel, stress, injury and alcohol intake, which can impact your cycle from the brain down.
There’s a detailed insight into each day and stage of your cycle and you can find out more in the discussion topics, which seem to be very interactive while covering subjects such as cramps, menstrual cups or period sex. It can provide insights into the chances of getting pregnant to help you stay informed about your most fertile days. You can print or email a report to give to a nutritionist like myself or a doctor.
And finally, the best app/program to utilize for your health:
Airplane mode or turning your phone off
The best thing to use on your phone is not as an app but a function. Airplane mode is the ultimate game-changer. Start learning to use it more. As mentioned above, mobile phones and Wi-Fi can be very detrimental to your health. The more you’re on airplane mode, the better your health will likely be.
Thank you for reading the whole article. Please comment below your favorite apps to use which improve or add value to your health.
