Are you looking for ways to manage your IBS or Crohn’s disease in your daily life?
Like the iPhone commercials used to say, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are several smartphone apps to help manage IBS and Crohn’s disease. In this week’s blog post, we’ll look at a few that can help you cope with your symptoms.
1. Bowelle – The IBS Tracker
This free app lets you record your symptoms, your mood, what you have eaten – which you can note by entering a description, or taking a photo – how much water you’ve had that day and your bowel movements and stress levels.
Then, the app lets you email this info to yourself in a spreadsheet so you can share the information with your doctor.
2. Calm
Reducing stress is an important part of dealing with digestive issues, and one way to lower your stress levels is through meditation. With Calm, a free meditation app, users get access to numerous guided meditation options, as well as 15-minute to 30-minute stories to help you fall to sleep.
3. SAM – Self-help Anxiety Management
Another app to help you deal with IBS-related stress, SAM offers several exercises and techniques to use if you feel anxious, and track how you’re feeling.
4. Bathroom Scout
Would you pay 99 cents to know where the closest bathroom is? That’s how much you’ll pay to download Bathroom Scout to your iPhone – it’s free for Android users – and gain access to a database of more than 1 million restrooms, from public bathrooms to the ones in stores and restaurants.
5. Monash University’s Low FODMAP app
Next on our list of apps to help manage IBD and Crohn’s disease is this app from Monash University, which we mentioned earlier this year in a post dealing with the low FODMAP diet.
It allows people with digestive troubles to remove carbohydrates that aren’t easily absorbed from their diets, and then reintroduce them to try to identify triggering foods. The app also includes recipes and a searchable database of foods that have been tested.
6. PoopTime
Despite its silly name, this app – initially developed to tell people how often they use the bathroom at work – serves a serious purpose for people with Crohn’s disease. It allows you to keep a record of the frequency and duration of your bowel movements.
7. GI Monitor
This free app lets you track your symptoms, pain and stress levels, weigh, bowel movements, medications and meals. There’s also a feature that lets you connect with other people living with irritable bowel diseases.
8. Colonoscopy Prep Assistant
People with Crohn’s disease are at greater risk for colon cancer, and thus need regular colonoscopies. This app is designed to alert you when it’s time to take the liquid laxatives prescribed to help you before your appointment.
9. My Crohn’s and Colitis Team
Last on our list of apps to help manage IBS and Crohn’s disease is this social network that lets you communicate with other patients, share updates on your condition and offer support.
If you’re looking for additional ways to deal with IBS and Crohn’s disease, Proper Nutrition can help.
Our whole-food supplements are made of protein-rich white fish that contain bioactive peptides to combat the effects of IBS and Crohn’s disease.
Visit our product page to find a supplement that can help reduce your digestive troubles.
