Phone apps tap into women’s heart health
By Tiye Bracy | Published by February 26, 2021
The homepage of the Wear Red: Phone Apps for Better Health event
Photo Credits: The homepage of the Wear Red: Phone Apps for Better Health event
In honor of Women Heart Disease Awareness Month, Kean University’s Center for Leadership and Service held Wear Red: Phone Apps for Better Health, an online event that took place on Feb. 2 in conjunction with other Wear Red educational programs that happened throughout the week.
The webinar was provided information about the different types of applications for better health that can be easily accessed on the phone. From resources that track food calories to menstrual cycles for women there are many apps that support better health.
“One in five Americans track their health through an application on their smartphone,” Jason Pleitez, Junior, Business Management student said.
A very popular application is the health app that is automatically installed on all Apple phones. Anyone with an I-phone has access to the heart app that track steps to sleeping patterns.
“I do have an apple watch whenever I do exercise, I sync it with my activity app,” Pleitez said. “It tells me how many calories I burned during the day.”
The activity app will track walking, jogging, and running automatically and can pair with any Apple watch.
“I use the MyFitnessPal pretty regularly now,” Managing Assistant Director of Community Service and Civic Engagement Susan Figueroa said.
MyFitnessPal is another common application that is easily downloadable on smartphones. This application will give the caloric details to popular eateries such as Applebees, Wendys, McDonalds, and many more.
There are many health applications that catered to different needs such as sleep, stress relief, nutrition, fasting, etc. A few applications that can help if you’re having trouble sleeping are Headspace, Sleep Cycle, Sleepa, and Calm.
“I never really had trouble sleeping but I did try it,” Pleitez said. “It gives you background music, sort of like calm soothing noises to help you fall asleep…”
The next category of health applications is for diet and nutrition. A few apps that are used for food tracking are SeeHowYouEat, SuperFood, MyPlate, and MyFitnessPal. There are premium versions to most health applications if individuals decide to upgrade from the free plan.
“The basic free versions really do work a lot,” Pleitez said. “They offer a lot, so you really don’t have to spend a dime.”
Another category of health applications is for women’s health. A few applications to track women’s menstrual cycles are Flo, Cycles, Clue, and Ovia.
The homepage of the Wear Red: Phone Apps for Better Health event
Photo Credits: Jaison Pleitez
“Menstrual cycles for women have everything to do with your whole body health,” Figueroa said.
If there is a problem with a women’s menstrual cycle, it might be an underlying issue for something bigger that is going on.
The last topic for health applications is for fasting. The highly rated fasting apps are Fastic, Window, InFasting, and Zero.
“During fasting you can have things, you can drink water, black coffee, and tea,” Pleitez said. “Things that don’t have a calorie intake.”
Pleitez shared a success story of his lost weight journey. During the pandemic, he decided that he wanted to lose weight. He explained that he wasn’t eating healthy with no physical activity. His journey started in March 2020, where he weighed 220 pounds. By July, he accomplished his weight goal of 160 pounds using various health apps.
“All of these apps cater to your specific needs and to what you want to do, to what your goal is,” Pleitez said.
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