It’s been mooted for a while now that the data generated by wearable tech can be the key to transforming health. The ability to measure activity, blood pressure, sleep, and stress levels and for urgent care and emergency doctors to monitor health and treatment from afar could well be the key to self-management of our own health.

The key to self-management, however, can be good habits and, while it may seem rather low-tech, the answer to that may lie in apps as much as data. Apps that can prompt ‘good’ behaviour can be transformational in helping people make the small changes that can make all the difference:

Fooducate
Ignore the daft name, this can make you buy better food, and the benefits of that are obvious.Its has the ability to scan a database of supermarket products to help you get the most from your meals, with a rating system that helps you worry about calories slightly less and nutrition slightly more.
Free, from the app store

101 Juice Recipes

You may know Joe Cross from documentaries such as ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’. You may well not, but he has built his reputation just as he has rebuilt his health, through the dogged pursuit of dieting and health. This is a rather pricey app, but offers a good deal of inspiration on the juicing front as you search by ingredient and colour, create shopping lists and mix recipes based on their illness-fighting properties.

£10.99, appstore

Sleep better

Never underestimate the power of sleep in improving your health. And while the sleep-depriving properties of mobile phones and tablets are becoming clearer, anything which helps you monitor your rest and be more disciplined in its pursuit, has got to be a good thing. There’s plenty out there, so its worth investigating, but this one monitors how you feel, your dreams, sleep patterns and predicts optimal waking time.
Free, appstore

Stress and Anxiety Companion
The biggest threat to your sleep patterns, and your health generally, is likely to be stress. This slightly oddly named app (who wants a friend for their anxiety?) is designed to manage your mental well-being with good habits, including the old favourite of deep breathing, and generating a positive outlook on life.
£2.29, appstore

Runmeter

Runners love data. Their data. Everyone else’s data. They love it almost as much as the running itself. So this is an essential – it tracks performance, heart rate, cadence… all your little legs could need, and it does it with years worth of your data so you can see how you’ve improved or not. For the partners of runners, this just means they become even more self-absorbed.

Free, appstore

7 Minute Workout

And for those who find running too time-consuming, this best-seller (in 127 countries) is the answer. High-intensity, but brief, workouts to get you fit 420 seconds at a time. For the busy, pudgy amongst us.

Free, appstore