STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — Looking to get fit or stay healthy in the new year?
The founder of the non-profit group Get Checked for Life, Dr. Yael Varnado, also known as "Dr. V", visited the KCAL9 studios Tuesday to show viewers the top medical apps for 2013.
Epocrates
• Worried about mixing medications? This drug reference provides photos of pills and describes how they interact
• Available for: iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, Android, Windows Mobile FREE
WebMD
• Think of it as a pocket reference guide to numerous medical conditions, pains, allergies, diseases, symptoms, and procedures
• They even have an App for New Moms! Available for: iPhone, BlackBerry, Android FREE
Fooducate
• Simply scan the barcode on packaged food items as you shop, you can get all the key nutritional details without having to decipher a single label
• Fooducate gives every food item a letter grade for health, from A to D, based on an algorithm developed by nutritionists and dietitians, which takes into account the nutritional density of each food
• The program even considers ingredients and other nutrition label components that sometimes get lost in harried consumers' processed-food analyses, such as preservatives, additives, high fructose corn syrup, food colorings, added sugar and serving sizes.
• Cost: Free
Sleep Cycles
• Never wake up tired again!
• How often does your alarm clock jolt you awake from the depths of slumber? A crappy wake-up can lead to fatigue and a cranky mood all day
• Sleep Cycle promises to keep you from waking up on the wrong side of bed again
• Using the iPhone's accelerometer, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock tracks your movements as you sleep, gauging when you transition between light and deep sleep
• The alarm clock will wake you when the phone determines you're in your lightest sleep cycle during a preset 30-minute wake-up window
• The app uses only about 30% of your iPhone's battery at night, so there's no need to keep it plugged in
• You can also set your alarm to music to ensure you wake up with extra pep in your step
• Cost: $0.99
Lose It
• Set a weight-loss goal and time frame and then keep an eye on calories and exercise time
• Available for: iPhone, Android FREE – whereas so many others charge you to monitor these things online!
Drink Tracker
• Blood Alcohol Concentration Calculator
• The best advice remains don't drink and drive. But enter your weight, the number of drinks you've had, and the time frame, and this app can help you estimate if you've reached the legal limit
• Free on iPhone.
Apps.USA.Gov
• Free Apps from the US Government
• Suppose you're a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and you want to learn relaxation techniques to deal with daily stress. Or you're a nursing mother concerned about the effects of certain drugs on breast milk
• Thanks to the U.S. Digital Government Strategy, introduced in May by the Office of Management and Budget, you have access to more than 100 free mobile applications, many of which target health issues and specific medical conditions
• The government is making it easier for doctors and first responders, too; the apps have been integrated with federal agencies' online guidelines, databases, and emergency services, such as 911 and hurricane shelters