iOS Health & Illness Management: Apps and Features for Tracking Symptoms

Apple Health App Symptom Tracking

• 💡 The Health app allows users to log a wide range of symptoms, from abdominal cramps to sore throat, with options to specify severity and duration.
• 🏥 Symptoms logged in the Health app can be integrated with data from other sources, such as ECG readings from an Apple Watch, to provide a more comprehensive health overview.
• 📈 Users can track trends in their health data, including resting heart rate, sleep patterns, and body temperature, to identify potential health indicators.

Peak App for Health Widgets

• 📊 Peak offers customizable widgets for the iPhone home screen to display key health metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen, and time in daylight.
• ☀️ Time in daylight can be a particularly useful widget for managing conditions like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
• 💰 The app is free to download with an optional annual subscription ($19.99/year) to unlock all features.

Environmental Health Tracking

• 💨 My Pollen Forecast Pro ($4.99) provides local pollen counts and forecasts, helping users correlate allergy symptoms with specific pollens.
• 🌍 Plume Labs offers free air quality tracking, including localized Air Quality Index (AQI) measurements, pollution maps, and activity recommendations based on current conditions.
• 🧐 Combining environmental data with personal symptoms can help differentiate between illness and allergies.

Step and Sleep Tracking Apps

• 🚶 Pedometer++ by David Smith tracks daily steps and integrates with Apple Health data, offering badges for achievements and customizable goals.
• 😴 Sleep++, also by David Smith, tracks sleep data from Apple Health, providing insights into sleep quality and patterns.
• 💰 Both Pedometer++ and Sleep++ are free to download with optional in-app subscriptions for advanced features.

Visible for Invisible Illnesses

• 💪 Visible is a subscription service using a Polar armband to track heart rate and daily exertion, designed for individuals with long-term or invisible illnesses like Long COVID.
• ⚡ The app provides "pace points" to help users manage their energy levels throughout the day by tracking exertion from daily activities.
• 📈 This data can help users understand how different activities affect their energy and identify when rest is needed, aiding in self-advocacy with medical professionals.

Feedback: Separate Volume Controls

• 🔊 Robert shared a tip on managing separate volume channels for Siri/navigation and media on iOS devices and CarPlay.
• 🗣️ Adjusting the volume while Siri is speaking (e.g., reading a message) sets the volume for Siri and navigation, without affecting media volume.

Shortcuts Corner: Symptom Logging

• 📝 Rosemary created a simple, one-action shortcut using the "Log Health Sample" action to easily log health symptoms directly from the iPhone home screen.
• a menu can be created within the shortcut to select from multiple symptoms (e.g., cramps, headache) for quicker logging.
• 🩺 This shortcut empowers users to collect data to better advocate for themselves with medical professionals, especially for invisible illnesses.