Bulletproof Health Apps
Just what are “Bulletproof Health Apps”, anyway? We’ll get to that in a second but first…
Imagine for a moment that you have within your reach a device that could improve your health, increase your performance, and help you live longer. It makes you smarter, happier, healthier – and even wealthier!
If you’re like most Americans, you already own this magical device. It’s your smartphone.
You must be asking yourself, “How do I use my smartphone to be smarter, happier, healthier and wealthier?” Good question. I’ll help you answer that question in a moment.
But first, let’s start with some background info. I spent a weekend at the Bulletproof Conference in Pasadena where I learned all different kinds of biohacks. Many were outside the realm of digital technology. However, there were some hacks and health apps that took advantage of that so-called smart device that you carry just about everywhere.
During the conference we covered all kinds of devices, supplements, and things you can do to improve your health that covered these 4 key components:
- Nutrition
- Exercise
- Brain Training
- Sleep
Basically, if you can get these right, you’re more likely to improve your life – in 3 main areas:
- Health
- Performance
- Longevity
Here you’ll get 7 health apps and hacks that I derived from the conference that can make you smarter, happier, healthier and wealthier.
Health App Number 1 – Trains Your Brain
Brain training (in some form or another) was a topic that came up throughout the conference.
And it seems to make sense that, although it helps in all 3 areas – Health, Performance and Longevity – perhaps brain training correlates more directly to your performance. That is, you’ll perform better using your brain for things like tasks at your job.
The one health app that was mentioned for this was Lumosity.
And here are the possible benefits:
- Reduce age-related cognitive decline
- Improve learning
- Reduce dementia risk
- Improve attention
- Improve executive function
- Increase reaction time
- Improve math skills
Sound good? Then go download the Lumosity health app – or one of many similar health apps – and give it a try.
Health App Number 2 – Remind Yourself of Your Potential
You are awesome. But often you don’t give yourself credit where credit is due.
And sometimes you don’t really think about where your awesomeness will take you in life.
What surprisingly simple app helps you with this?
I’ll give you a hint: it’s already on your device.
Any ideas? It’s your alarm! And here’s how to hack it to make you more superhuman:
- Think of an affirmation. For example, “I am strong.”
- Or a mission. For example, for my business, it’s “#1 mHealth Consultancy in Denver.”
- Set up an alarm to go off 1-3 times during the day.
- Give it the name of your affirmation or mission.
- Done!
Yep, it’s really that simple: Set your alarm so that your smartphone reminds you just how awesome you are – and your amazing potential – and you’ll see the message every time your alarm goes off.
Health App Number 3 – Improve Your Mood
Do you ever find yourself a bit down during the day? Maybe you just finished a conversation with your evil boss or one of your less-than-favorite clients. So you’re probably not in the best of moods.
Thus the question is: Can you turn to your smartphone to make you happy?
And of course the answer is: Yes! There are several apps to do this but one that was on display at the Bulletproof Conference was a health app called HeartMath.
Here’s the claim:
“Improvements in mental & emotional well-being in over 5,500 people in just 6-9 weeks using HeartMath training and technology”
- 50% drop in fatigue
- 46% drop in anxiety
- 60% drop in depression
- 24% improvement in the ability to focus
- 25% improvement in listening ability
- 30% improvement in sleep
HeartMath scientifically monitors your emotional and physical health – and helps you improve it.
I used a similar health app, SweetBeat I think is the name, and, after attaching the heart rate monitor and starting the app I was able to go from high to low stress in just a few minutes.
Ready to get happy? Download the HeartMath health app.
Health App Number 4 – Get Your Rest
Do you get enough sleep? How is the quality of your sleep?
One of my key takeaways from following biohacking and a key point repeated over and over throughout this conference was the importance of sleep.
Why do you need so get sufficient rest?
Here’s what happens in the short term without sufficient sleep:
- poor judgment
- bad mood
- inability to learn and retain information
- may increase the risk of serious accidents and injury
And long-term:
- obesity
- diabetes
- cardiovascular disease
- early mortality.
With this in mind, take a good look at your phone and its nice bright screen. But don’t do this at night! Why not?
Well… As you may already know, that high-tech screen on your phone puts off light that more or less tells your body that it’s high noon.
What can you do? Well, turn down your lights at night – including the screen on your phone.
But this may not be enough. You see, the screen still emits a blue wave of light that tells your body it’s broad daylight. This in turn delays the time your body begins producing melatonin to help induce sleep. Not good.
The good news is that there’s an app for that.
For Android you can get the Twilight health app.
For your computer you can get f.lux.
And for iOS… well, you’re SOL. I don’t know of any app. But you can get a sticker to cover your screen that blocks the blue light.
Health App Number 5 – Get More Rest
Now you know about the importance of blocking out light. But do you know how much sleep you’re getting and the quality of sleep?
There are health apps for that! You basically set the app on your bed and it tracks the amount and quality of sleep based on your movements during the night.
You can get Sleep Cycle here.
I’m using an Android app appropriately named Sleep as Android.
Health App Number 6 – Be Mindful
Do you meditate – or practice some form of mindfulness?
If not, you should. There were a lot of great presenters during the Bulletproof Biohacking Conference who talked about the benefits of meditation.
Here are some of those benefits:
- Peace of mind
- Less stress and worry
- More focus
- Increased productivity
- More creativity
- Better relationships
One popular app is Headspace. I tried this app out but I wasn’t a big fan of the voice.
So I switched over to Calm. I use this app about 2 times per day and I think that it really does help.
However, I had the best meditative experience of my life during the group meditation during the conference guided by Emily Fletcher of Ziva Meditation. You may want to check it out.
Health App Number 7 – Store Your Data
With the proliferation of health apps on your smartphone and other devices out there that you either wear or have at your home, office, in your car, etc, the question becomes:
How do you track and make sense of all of this information they collect?
Enquos is a company that had a booth at the conference and its aim is to solve this problem.
Their service connects with all the devices and health apps you use to track all of your data. In their words:
“Enquos is the first comprehensive system to track, analyze, organize, and securely share nutrition, fitness, and health data, while providing tools for optimizing healthy choices.”
I’m just now getting more into tracking my data. I know, I’m a bit late to the game but I think there are some great tools and I can use these to learn and improve my health.
Bonus Health App: Airplane Mode
Is your smartphone making you sick? Is using your cell phone the new smoking?
I’m not going to go into much detail now. Instead, I recommend you read more about the possible damaging effects of cell phones yourself.
What you should know is that your cell phone emits harmful EMFs and you should keep it away from your body (and especially your brain) and use it sparingly.
One simple way to lessen the effects is to put your phone on Airplane Mode when you’re not using it. This turns off your radio, bluetooth and Wifi.
Health Apps to Hack Your Health
That’s it. 7-ish apps to hack your health. Which apps do you use to hack your own health?