Photo: adria.richards

Alright, even in the holistic health world, we tend to like our gadgets.

You go to yoga class, and the soft, calming music is coming from a never-skipping iPod. Everyone checks their iPhone or Blackberry right before and minutes after class. Don’t forget to take it hiking in places like Mt. Tamalpais, CA, whether or not you get a signal (my friend always has his). Ah yes, blissful living through technology.

Well, we also must live in the real world. So we need some real time applications, too, damnit.

Lo and behold, it’s the 20 iPhone Apps That Contribute to Our Health and Wellness! Now you too can be healthy with just the flick of a button!

Here a few that spoke to me, for one reason or another:

• Ok, I’m not a big fan of the The Food Scanner, which uses “iPhone’s camera to scan UPC barcodes on the foods you eat.” Reminds me too much of my nutritionist days where I had to input three days of people’s diets into software that took forever AND I don’t like perpetuating calorie-counting. But if you wanna know how many fat grams you are getting a day, well, looks like there’s an app for that.
• The weirdest (and most commercial?) one has to be the Cold & Flu Companion, brought to you by your friends at Zicam, cold and flu remedy! Yep, they’ll tell you the “percentage of sick people in any given zip code, what types of symptoms are most prevalent and which ones to look out for in a specific area.” Fantastic! No thanks.
• One I may try out myself is the Self Defense for All, which apparently teaches you both the moves and the theories behind them.
• And hells, yeah, they have a GoodFoodNearYou app! No longer will I use my out-of-date GPS search function for “specialty foods” or wait for a Google search on my iPhone for local health food stores.
• But the truly most new-agey one of all (awww, yeah) has to be the Pzizz Relax (yeah, trying saying it out loud). Their promo:
  

  Pzizz Relax is an an advanced relaxation system designed for iPhone. Pzizz Relax is perfect for those who work too much and hardly have time for sleep.

  It’s essentially like a relaxation CD, but it somehow remixes tracks so that you have different spoken segments each time. Hmm, intriguing. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, check out the rest of the apps and pass along your thoughts. If you’re a holistic health writer, these apps may also do you some good. And, of course, my ever present and aware friend, remember to tweet and use other social media to pass this information on.

Namaste.

Feature photo: SanFranAnnie