I had heard that they had a variety of apps and tools but when I actually visited the website to see just how many, I was quite blown away. There are 36 in total - and there will be plenty which appeal to you and NONE will cost you anything to use.
There are quite a few different categories as well:
There are health assessment categories - so you can take questionnaire tests to see if you are at risk of having a heart problem or breast cancer or if your diet is not doing you much good! There are also stress assessments (this one is SO important to do, far too many people are getting very sick from stress alone) and for the men there are also prostate checks and running checks (sadly quite a few men die whilst running as they haven't been aware that their heart is in bad condition). I love the count your calories tool as we can all usually do with eating quite a few less calories than we do! (well I know I can!)
Another super great Health Assessment tool is the one for Alcohol. Way too many people drink far too much, luckily I am not one of them anymore but boy did I used to be! I used to be a huge binge drinker and sadly, this is common for so many people, maybe even you who is reading this? It seems like a stage most of us will go through, from our teenage years to say our 30's but I actually know that for a huge percentage, the binge drinking doesn't really stop. Most people are now drinking 3-4 glasses of wine each night of the week, to cope with the stress of life. It really worries me so I urge you to take the Alcohol unit counter tool here just so you know if you are drinking an ok amount or it’s something that is going to cause you health problems in the future.
And if you are worried about your weight, check out the BMI calculator. Being overweight, even just a little bit, in certain areas of the body (i.e. for females around the waist) is a real worry.
And another test to take that is SO important is the Diabetes Risk assessment tool. Diabetes is absolutely skyrocketing with small kids getting it and many adults later in life. And it's not something you will enjoy having that’s for sure; it can really change your life in such a negative way, using insulin many times a day and in the worst case scenario, losing a limb! So please check out if you are at risk!
There are a few more health assessment tools but I have only mentioned the main ones here (my blog post will be sooo long if I write about them all!)
Another great feature of the Apps and Tools website is the 'Get Active' section this gives you a whole bunch of advice, again on many different topics to help you get fit and also to keep an eye out for any injuries. There is a tool for helping people who are new at running to help you prevent running injuries, and information on your joints and muscles and bones.
Elderly people are also included here too; they can also check out a tool just for them as well which gives them advice on how to exercise for their age group. In fact, they have a section just for them called 'Later Life' which offers them tools to help with many different subjects, advice on aging, carer support, a brain app, nutrition quiz plus a few more!
There is also a diet and nutrition section too which is something that may appeal to a lot of people depending on your diet. Diet is such a controversial thing though, what may be healthy to you may not be healthy to me and vice versa.
My favourite section was the 'Healthy Mind' section. Far too many people are suffering from depression and stress and are unhappy and well, moody! It's so important to keep the brain healthy as much as possible and Bupa have some great tools for that. These are the ones I am really interested in. This has a how to beat stress tool, health at work, health age calculator, brain app, important information on sleep and you can also take the questionnaire to see if stress is probably affecting you.
I wanted to test out a few of these so I have chosen the Stress assessment tool.
This is a questionnaire that takes about 10 minutes to do. This asked questions about my employment, sleep routine, financial situation, If I had anyone to share my problems with, if I suffered any abuse at home (no thank goodness!) These were the basic questions and it only took me about 3 minutes to do, but there was advice at the end about things like sleeping routines and how to improve them. There was information on the physiological action of sleep, how much we need, and how to improve the quality. Because one my answers was about financial matters, they offered advice on 'living within your mean's which I found quite helpful with common sense advice. It talked about budgeting and things like that.
Reading all of these things made me think just how much work has gone into these tools and Apps. Some of you might think, well they obviously want me to sign up to Bupa and yes I guess that’s exactly right, but with the medical world being in such a mess, I don't see it as a bad thing. I personally am considering getting health care for my daughter as I wouldn't want her going to a hospital and not being looked after in the best way possible. Some of the horror stories I have been reading lately are just shocking!
The Beat Stress tool is very helpful and one I really recommend you checking out, as I mentioned before, stress is affecting all of us in a way that people don't quite recognise until it’s so obvious! I really found the advice very helpful and loved that it recommended complimentary therapies such as yoga, meditation and breathing exercises, these all really do help!
But you don't have to be a Bupa member to use these apps!
Do you and your health (and your loved ones!) a favour and check out more at http://findhealthy.bupa.co.uk/?utm_campaign=content-distribution
These apps and tools really can help with your health and immediately too!
