health apps

If you’re considering taking part in Dry January, check out these sober apps to help you quit alcohol for the month — and maybe longer. Dry January is a monthlong challenge to abstain from alcohol for the first 30 days of the year. Popular in the United Kingdom and growing worldwide, it’s a great way to reset after the boozy holiday season, giving people a chance to focus on health and well-being.

A lot of people get guidance and support using Dry January apps, aka apps to drink less alcohol, which can also help cut back drinking anytime during the year.

Apple is secretly testing a new health app designed to help individuals with prediabetes manage their diet and lifestyle choices, according to a new report. The experimental app, tested with select employees earlier this year, focuses on helping users understand how different foods affect their blood sugar levels. That might help stave off Type 2 diabetes for some.

Some might use it just to marvel at how that cookie is spiking their blood sugar and choose an apple next time, instead.

Powerful new health and wellness apps take advantage of visionOS’s “infinite canvas” to use spatial experiences to improve patient outcomes in clinical settings and at home, Apple said Monday. It seems that Vision Pro health apps are changing medical care.

“We’re thrilled to see the incredible apps that developers across the healthcare community are bringing to Apple Vision Pro,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “The imagination and drive of our developers, combined with the technical capabilities of visionOS, are igniting new possibilities for physicians, frontline workers, and even students, and we can’t wait to see what’s to come.”

When an Ohio man went for his usual walk along the river recently and felt his knees turn to rubber, he had no idea what he was in for — other than he was “going down.”

But it turned out his Apple Watch and a health app had a few ideas, and they helped save the fallen 83-year-old’s life.

How do your everyday actions affect your rate of aging? The Humanity app serves as a one-stop shop for gauging how the way you eat, exercise, rest and think impacts your overall health. It’s a science-backed comprehensive health guide, packaged into a single app — at a surprisingly low price.

During our Spring Digital Blowout sale, which ends April 3, you can pick up a lifetime premium subscription to the Humanity health app for only $99.97 (regularly $299) with no coupon required. That’s nearly 70% off a highly rated service that’s primed to elevate your fitness, nutrition and mental well-being.

Staying fit and healthy is one of the most important life goals you can ever have, but finding the time to monitor your wellness is easier said than done. The revolutionary Humanity health app makes it easy to take control of your health right from your phone.

And now, you can grab a lifetime subscription to this top-rated app for only $129.99.

Withings introduced its newest and most-advanced smart scale along with the company’s first health subscription service Thursday, both integrated with Apple Health.

The company said the Body Comp scale measures multiple biomarkers for a complete body assessment and the annual Health+ subscription service provides health analysis and tools to help users build healthful routines.

The scale and service launch October 4 at a price of $209.95.

Aura Devices updated its health-metrics-focused smart band for Apple Watch Wednesday by slimming it down and adding a fitness-oriented subscription service.

The second-generation Aura Strap 2 records metrics like body fat percentage, muscle density and water levels.

A smart scale sitting on the bathroom floor is never going to replace your doctor — or at least, not yet. But devices like the new Eufy Smart Scale P2 Pro do more in the realm of health than just weigh you.

You may not be in a big hurry to find out about things like your bone mass, but at least you can if you want or need to. And you can do it in the comfort of your own home.

There’s plenty of ways you can take care of your health in 2021. You could start a steady workout regimen with Apple Fitness+. You could begin being more mindful about nutrition and what you consume. Or you might set aside time in your week to meditate and get away from your iPhone.

While some apps will help you accomplish these things individually, there isn’t a more comprehensive wellness app on the market than Verv Premium Home Workout Planner.

Apple is jumping into the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with a new website and app that allow visitors to screen themselves for COVID-19 symptoms.

The company partnered with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control for the new site and app, found at Apple.com/covid19 and on the App Store. The goal is to give people resources so they can stay informed on steps they can take to protect their health during the coronavirus outbreak.

U.K. health researchers launched a COVID-19 symptom-tracking app to help monitor the spread of the coronavirus this week — and it already rocketed to the top of the App Store charts.

COVID Symptom Tracker has reportedly been downloaded 750,000 times since it launched Thursday, making it the No. 3 most popular app overall in the United Kingdom and the top medical app. The app could prove to be a vital tool for health care workers in the fight against the coronavirus, and it’s coming to the United States soon.

Eating well is one of the best things you can do for your health (not to mention the environment). But it’s also hard for many people. After all, not everybody knows where to find good ingredients, let alone what to do with them. A good meal planner app like eMeals can make it simple to eat clean.

Apple is poised to create an entirely new ecosystem in health care with a value that could be three times greater than the global smartphone market, according to a Morgan Stanley report.

Apple devices and a growing number of App Store apps are in the early stages of what the 14 analysts predict will be a digital disruption to the health care industry worth as much as $313 billion by 2027.

Apple Watch could soon add sleep-tracking tech that makes it an even more capable health monitor.

Apple has been testing the new sleep-tracking technology at secret sites around Cupertino, a new report claims. And if it lives up to its promise, it could ship as part of the Apple Watch by 2020.

With our 50 Essential iOS Apps series, the goal was to help you find some of the best apps for iPhone and iPad. Picking the finest offerings from the more than 2.2 million iOS apps in Apple’s App Store proved challenging. But we highlighted apps that offer excellent features or make life easier in various ways.

To wrap up the series, we’ve sorted the apps by category to make the list easier to browse. We’re also showcasing Cult of Mac readers’ alternatives to our picks.

(You’ll find reader faves linked at the end of this post. That’s especially helpful since one of our must-have apps is about to die an unceremonious death.)

Do you ever wake up feeling exhausted, even though you are sure you slept well the night before? Or do you find yourself getting that 2:30 feeling a few hours early without any clear explanation? With the Pillow sleep app for iPhone and Apple Watch, you can get detailed analysis of your nightly slumber. Even better, you can gain insight into your body’s ideal sleep and wake times.

Apple Watch can accurately detect atrial fibrillation, a serious heart condition that is a leading cause of stroke.

This advanced feature remains in testing. However, a new medical study offers proof that wearables can do far more than simply track fitness. In fact, they could actually keep the wearer alive.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 packs a heart-rate monitor that can also check blood pressure. It’s high time Apple added these features to the next iPhone.

Researchers have developed an iPad app that makes setting up lifesaving colon cancer screenings “as easy as booking a hotel room online.”

Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Early screening can dramatically reduce mortality rates, yet more than one-third of Americans who fall within the most likely age bracket go unscreened every year.

BARCELONA, Spain — Smart sperm testers, body cavity inspectors, Bluetooth pillows, holographic jump ropes and contactless thermometers. It’s all just another day at Mobile World Congress, where more and more companies show off their new HealthKit-compatible gadgets.

If you want your iPhone to know absolutely everything about what’s going on with your body, these handy medical devices are for you. Here’s what they do — and why they’re cool.

This week, take your mind off that new $1,000 iPhone X and get these bargains instead!

We found great deals on iPhone SE and iPad, plus a couple of free apps (including an awesome Batman game).

This post is brought to you by Withings, maker of the Body Cardio smart scale.

One of the great promises of the mobile and wearables revolution was that we’d all get unprecedented insights into our personal health. Apple even built a Health app into its mobile operating system. And what icon did Apple choose for its trailblazing Health app? An unmistakable red heart.

Now a heart-healthy smart scale can capture critical data about your cardiovascular health that can provide a fresh perspective on your wellness regimen.

Aetna, one of the largest U.S. health insurance providers, revealed today that it will subsidize a major portion of Apple Watch costs for customers as part of a new initiative.

The company will combine its own wellness and care-management programs with the power of iPhone and Apple Watch to create new iOS apps that it says should significantly improve customers’ ability to manage their own health.

As part of its mobile health drive, Apple has rehired Evan Doll, co-founder of “social magazine” company Flipboard. Doll will serve as Apple’s new director of health software engineering.