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Get Your Healthy App On | April 8, 2013

Dr. Barry

I write this month about apps for the smartphone. If you don’t own one now the experts say you will soon, the next time you upgrade your phone for instance. In roughly two years’ time therefore, the only person on the planet without a smartphone will be me. Now I had a smartphone but gave it to my daughter and got a militarized flip phone so I can get it wet and not hurt it. I didn’t use the barcode reader and the night sky reader or the Angry Birds game whatever that is. I didn’t need all the fancy bells and whistles. I couldn’t read my email without glasses so it’s back to the primitive phone that only makes and receives phone calls. Can you imagine my primitive state? Smart phones do so much these days, from GPS to capturing photos of what you ate last night. How did I ever get by not getting a photo of your sushi plate emailed to me while I’m trying to read. The ugly downside to the smartphone is so obvious to everyone over 20. They intrude on real life. How many times do you see someone at the dinner table checking their email while a conversation with real live people occurs around them? I was in the Caribbean recently with my wife and I marveled at the obviously American family sitting next to me in the outdoor dining spot…the gentle warm breeze…the sights, the sounds and smells. The family of four was all sitting there each one immersed in their own device. It looked like two iPads and two iPhones from the dim glow but really…you travel thousands of miles to “get away” and still can’t bear to really separate yourselves from your tech? don’t you know how ridiculous it looks for you to be frantically thumbing these little pads constantly?! Listening for the furtive tweet honk or other personalized sound that notifies you that someone or something has something for you? Just as you laugh at me for being a tech dinosaur, future generations will laugh at you for this frantic fingering. How panicked you get when you can’t get a signal and check your Facebook constantly. You look like a heroin addict who can’t get his fix. Heaven forbid you have to endure a little silence or perhaps get involved in the conversation.

There is no way to turn back the techno clock nor would I want to. We live in a world of constant change and miniaturization and I foresee that we will all be wearing glasses in the future that projects a data street or multiple streams based on what we are looking at or doing. Don’t have to look down at your watch or hold anything at all to make a phone call. For that matter the data streams will project onto your contact lenses. We probably already have the little watches that can work as a phone as well. We will do more with our voices and less with the keyboard; at least not a physical keyboard. No, peripheral brains are here to stay and as we seem to be getting dumber all the time it’s a good thing. Don’t think we are getting any dumber? Look to Washington…any sign of intelligent life there?

So let me help you put something in that peripheral brain that can make a difference with your health. And by doing so make a difference in your life. Maybe some free app from the internet can motivate and educate you in some way that has escaped us during your office call. How many of those little icons on your phones are links to something actually useful?

Of course these apps will only work if you actually use them. You must put them front and center in your phone like a photo of your fat self front and center on the fridge. Get in the habit of using them daily…anything less won’t work. There are literally thousands of apps available, some free, some not, and I’m not saying the list below is best but it’s a start. These are from the list I give my patients and I will add it to any apps that people suggest (after I’ve checked them out of course).

So the big areas that a little peripheral brain can help you include quitting smoking, diet and exercise as well as hypertension and diabetes management. You can take great care of yourself without these apps but if they are available why wouldn’t you at least give them a try. One of the hallmarks of people that are improving themselves, one of the reoccurring suggestions from the gurus of self-improvement, one of the recommendations from all the experts in the health industry is to track the data. Using these little phones you can follow your blood pressure, your blood sugar, your exercise frequency, etc. the more you know the better decisions you can make. The very act of keeping track and reflecting on the activity can reinforce good behavior, patterns and lifestyles. More of my patients are keeping their copies of their medical records on their phone but I still don’t know the best app for this.

Most importantly is quitting smoking and there are multiple free apps, but the one with the most umph is My Quit Coach (available at the Apple Store or Droid download sites as are all others). This one has a livestrong association which I don’t know how I feel about but the app is good and the issue of quitting smoking so important. You can chose to quit it at once or slowly and the app tracks differently.

For diabetics I recommend WellDoc or Glucose buddy. Both not only track data but interact with you to attempt to change behavior, results.

To remind you to take your meds, try RemindMe. Most experts think the average patient screws up their meds all the time and the more the meds the more the screw ups. What’s wrong with having that little device that’s next to you remind you to take a pill? Might just be the thing to keep your college age daughter on her birth control pills, or grandma might need help remembering the third batch of pills each day which your old hand me down phone could help her with.

When was your last tetanus shot? No questions about what shot or when with the VaxTrak app. Do you know how many pages of old records I have to comb through to try to figure out when your last pneumonia shot was? Keep track of your own vaccine info.

If you want to stay healthy you have to take care of your blood pressure. If it’s high you have to treat it. If you treat it you should track it and besides knowing more about your own health it proves to your doctor that you are an involved participant in your care. The app for you is IBP blood pressure.

Although I have more to say on this in a future column, if you have trouble sleeping try Pzizz, it’s $10 at press time but worth a try.

For those working on diet…and you should all be, I offer you four choices: LoseIt, MyNetDiary, Mindful Eating and Mindful Bite. I like the first two apps more than the second two, but it’s a style thing, not a content thing.

For those working on fitness and that’s you: MyFitnessPal, C25k, iFit and Daily Cardio Workout. Many also have calorie counters and diet information. C25k stands for couch to 5k, meaning they will go from being a couch potato to fit enough to run a 5k. Pretty neat.

Finally for relaxation…for those of you too stubborn to follow my advice and try yoga, try Breath2Relax or Buddhify. I really like the latter program as you can customize it for commute, exercise, etc.

Lastly for brain training, consider Luminosity Brain Trainer or Memory Trainer Pro. The former is a more thorough program and the latter is something you do while you are waiting for your lunch to arrive. I don’t know if either program will help you remember your girlfriend’s favorite song. These apps can’t help your marriage or help you figure out what’s really wrong with that kid or grandkid of yours, at least not yet. Give them time. I’m working on an article about an exciting new Internet-based treatment program for insomnia. No gimmicks, no fancy machines, no medications of any kind. Nothing to lose or break or have to send back. You can get to the bottom of the problem or you can just cover it up. This new program offers a real, long-term solution that does not require input from you or some kind of work on your part. And of course that means 90% of you can’t be bothered and will ask for a sleeping pill. I know, believe me, how important a good night’s sleep is but I can’t believe taking some medication that powerfully affects your brain night after night is good for you either. What do you know…neither do the experts as recent news stories detail. “Use less, use lower doses” was the recent update from the FDA. Of course, they also recommend not using drugs for more than two weeks at a time, but try to tell that to someone asking to stay on this medicine for all time.

But there is hope, speaking of hope…if you were trapped in the calendar, how would you survive? Yes, this is a mental challenge. Until next month…get well, stay well!