Smartphones can help you with everything from planning a trip to deciding on a major purchase, and it turns out that they can also be useful for improving your medical situation. Some apps will actively help you to boost your health, while others are geared towards helping you to maintain good health. Read on to discover eight of the best apps for the health conscious person.

1) Gazelle

Gazelle is a unique app that allows you to store all the data from your medical records and then view this information when you need to know something significant about your health. For example, you can use your smartphone to call up the dates of your last vaccinations, look at your recent blood test results, and recall the precise doses of your regular medications.

 2) Fitocracy

If you are trying to get fit, this tracking app can help by logging all of your workout data via your smartphone, awarding you points or achievements when you reach a significant milestone. Fitocracy turns exercise into a game with levels and competitions, and this can improve your motivation (especially if you don’t have a gym buddy with whom you can regularly work out).

3) Medscape

Medscape can improve your life if you regularly take several different types of medication, or if you are wondering whether a certain over-the-counter drug is compatible with your current medication. Specifically, Medscape can tell you whether you are at risk of experiencing any dangerous drug interactions. The app accesses a database filled with information about the side effects, safety statistics and interactions of over eight thousand different drugs. In addition, Medscape allows you to use your smartphone to find information and new research relating to a huge range of different infectious diseases and chronic illnesses.

4) My Last Cigarette

If you are trying to stop smoking, you probably need all the help you can get. My Last Cigarette is an app that can show you precise figures reflecting the extent to which your life expectancy improves as each cigarette-free day passes. It can also calculate the amount of money you have saved, and you can set it up to display encouraging messages on your smartphone. These message may help to boost your willpower in the face of nicotine addiction.

5) ZocDoc

With ZocDoc, you can use your smartphone to search for suitable doctors and dentists within the US, reading hundreds of reviews as you try to make your choice. It typically provides extensive information on medical practitioners, including everything you want to know about their areas of specialization and their education. You can also schedule your medical care online without having to call anyone.

6) Mel App

This highly sophisticated smartphone app can provide you with valuable information when you are concerned about a mole on your body. Although it is no substitute for a physical examination, it can take a photograph of your mole and compare it to a database of images in order to estimate how likely you are to be suffering from some form of skin cancer. You should always have a suspicious mole investigated by a doctor, but Mel App may help to reduce your stress levels while you wait for an appointment (or help you to persuade a loved one that they should see a dermatologist about their mole).

7) The Heart Disease Risk Calculator

If you are wondering whether your current eating and exercise habits are helping or hindering your desire to avoid a heart attack or stroke, this app can help you. It takes information about your life and translates it into a number that indicates how likely you are to suffer from serious cardiovascular problems within the next ten years. This risk calculator can be a highly motivating addition to your smartphone if you want to improve your health.

8) Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

This app tracks your sleep pattern during the night, providing information about your sleep quality (by judging how much deep sleep you tend to get). Another handy element of this app is that it allows you to set an alarm time frame rather than a specific alarm time, letting the app trigger the smartphone’s alarm when you are in a light phase of sleep. If you wake up during lighter sleep, you are more likely to feel refreshed rather than exhausted or groggy.

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Laura has lost lots of weight with the help of smartphone apps however she does recommend that those wanting to use a phone to aid weight loss compare mobile phones first, as not every phone will be able to access the apps listed above.