Nine Health and Fitness Apps for Your iPhone

One of the most popular applications in the App Store’s “Healthcare and Fitness” section, iFitness offers users a comprehensive exercise database that allows fitness fans a step-by-step guide to exercise routines and track their progress. The app also provides 12 routines, designed by “registered fitness experts” that target everything from weight loss to Schwarzenegger-ization.

From looking up symptoms to finding drug treatment information, WebMD mobile edition includes a symptom checker, pill identifier and First Aid information. The pill identifier allows users to search by name or use, and the results are identified as vitamins, supplements, over-the-counter, etc. The company notes WebMD does not provide medical advise, diagnosis or treatment.

This amusing app sticks to the notion that the body requires eight glasses of water a day. Every time you drink an 8-ounce glass of water, tap a glass of water on the screen and it empties. At the end of the day, the app provides information on why drinking water is healthy and refills the glasses. The latest version adds a setting that allows users to see how many glasses are left to drink by displaying it on the home screen icon.

These two apps from Webahn are specifically designed for small-practice physicians. Capzule, which is free, is a Web-based electronic medical records (EMR) app that allows physicians to access patient charts, write prescriptions and view appointments. Accent, listed for $0.99, is an audio recording tool for OverScribe.com users dictating medical notes (external mike needed).

For those planning for medical school, the Netter’s apps, at $39.99 apiece, offer a far more extensive and expensive virtual tour of the human body than does Human Body 3-D, but for casual fans of the human form, this 3-D guide allows users to rotate organs 360 degrees, access and read information on each system body, the five senses and skeletal systems. The app also offers 3-D animations.

Can you hear me now? The uHear hearing loss-screening test allows users to test if their hearing is within normal range or have the potential for hearing loss. The app uses three tests to determine potential hearing loss: Hearing Sensitivity, Speech in Noise and Questionnaire. Donald Hayes, director of audiology for Unitron Hearing, designed the app.

Released this week, Gym Finder identifies your location and provides listings for the nearest workout centers, grouped by company name (Gold’s Gym) or type of exercise (yoga). Users can also call the gym by tapping the phone icon once you’ve selected one. The application uses Google’s data of business listings, so the information may not always be up-to-date, the site notes.

Anyone who’s seen “Super Size Me” or “Food, Inc.” is probably not going near a fast food restaurant anytime soon, but for those of us who daily decide between items on Wendy’s dollar menu, this app might encourage you to head for the salad bar. It includes 8,373 menu items from 68 fast food restaurants and nutritional information such as fat, carbs, fiber and calories.

The premiun version of RunKeeper with audio cues, training workouts, geo-tagged photos and status updates, iPod playlist integration and no advertisements, RK Pro tracks a runner’s duration, speed, distance, elevation versus speed and the path traveled on a map. Users can store run data on a personal Web dashboard and have integrated with social networking sites Twitter and Facebook as well.