My Must Have Health Apps

Here are some apps that I have used in my journey with psoriasis that I have found to be helpful.

Yuka

Benoît Martin, one of the co-founders and a father of three, decided he wanted to buy better food for his family. He found it overwhelming to read all the labels for a vast array of food products and thought it would be nice if a tool could automatically analyze each item's ingredients. And so, the Yuka app was born.

The Yuka App aims to help us better understand labels, increase informed purchasing, and ultimately promote healthier product choices. The primary purpose of the Yuka app is to show the impact of products on your overall health.

The free version of the app allows you to scan products and tells you if they are “excellent,” “good,” “bad,” or “poor”. Yuka also lists the exact ingredients and how hazardous they are to your health. But Yuka doesn't leave you hanging. It recommends alternative, healthier products for you to purchase instead.

This has been an extremely helpful tool for me when I am on the fence concerning any skin products or hair products that might irritate my psoriasis. Honestly, the free version works well enough for me.

Calm

Stress is hands down my number one psoriasis trigger. I really do try to fit meditation into my schedule, but without a little nudge, another day passes without any zen in my life. That's why I love Calm. You can personalize your recommendations based on your goals and receive daily reminders. It helps reduce stress and anxiety, build self-esteem, increase happiness, develop gratitude, improve performance, and even lull you to sleep.

You can select meditations, songs, and sounds based on your mood for the day, anywhere from as little as 2 minutes to 29 minutes. You can include daily movements for stress into your routine, even targeting specific body regions.

Calm allows you to browse by your goal or the amount of time you have to spare. You can even find remixes of your favorite songs! Calmer versions, of course.

Headspace

Where my skin is at is usually all about where my head is at. Headspace, like Calm, allows you to set sleep, anxiety, mindfulness, and stress goals. The app starts with a short exercise by asking you to take three breaths and how you feel afterward. I don't know about you, but I like being asked how I'm feeling, and I feel like I don't get asked enough.

Headspace was founded in May 2010 by Andy Puddicombe and Richard Pierson. Puddicombe is a former Buddhist monk, and Pierson has a marketing and new brand development background. Andy Puddicombe is a meditation and mindfulness expert. Headspace includes music, podcasts for your day, visualizations for sleep, meditations, and movement exercises. You can even track your stress.

Holistic Living

The Holistic Living app has a simple objective: to live sustainably. Their mission? “We source only sustainable brands, with environmental responsibility and ethical treatment of animals and people alike. We seek a deeper connection with the natural world, to live a healthy, happy, and well-balanced life. Natural products are available to us, but we can’t easily spot this due to overwhelming information.”

As someone living with an autoimmune disease, I'm always trying to be mindful of what I put into and onto my body. Holistic Living recommends herbs, healthy meals, recipes, popular remedies, and healthier products. It even lists product prices and where you can purchase them. They have a blog section with topics that include brain health, female health, improving energy, mental health, skincare, sleep, weight loss, and more.

Holistic Living helps you build healthy routines, avoid chronic conditions, and shop for natural, sustainable products. My favorite feature might be the tracker, though. You can track water, protein, and vegetable intake as well as track your exercise, meditation, and sleep habits.

Holistic Living is a wellness app designed to provide a one-stop-shop for those looking to improve and/or maintain their health.

Alltrails

If you want to keep it healthy, you have to keep it moving. One of my favorite ways to move is by hiking (or even just a brisk walk). Alltrails does exactly that; it lists all the trails nearby. Search by distance, the activity you’ll be performing on the trail (e.g.: bike riding, running, bird watching, camping, horseback riding, even snowshoeing!), the difficulty, length, pet-friendly, kid-friendly, paved, or unpaved.

Alltrails provide information on the trail, such as difficulty, directions, length of the trail, how long it takes to complete, a preview, and even what you could see while on the trail. You can even visit the "community" portion of the app to see pictures from other members along with reviews - explore by destination or see local postings.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is a tried and true favorite in the fitness community. The app includes a calorie counter, meal plans, workout routines, and a step counter. It will help you figure out your daily macro intake as well as your fiber, sugar, fat, and sodium intake. Feeling lazy? Scan the barcode on your food, and it will add the nutrients into the app for you. You'll have access to articles on food, health, and more. It will even give you your week in review.

Originally, co-founder Mike Lee built the app as a way to track his weight before his wedding, but he started working on it full-time after interest from friends and family. Thanks, Mike.

There are so many apps available

There is truly an endless amount of apps out there. Especially ones that aim to better your body and want to gear you towards living a healthier lifestyle. My skin is always at its best when I am. And that includes mind, body, and soul.

While this list doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg in a sea of apps, it's a good start to a better you. Here's to a healthier you with glowing, flake-free skin.