Diabetes Apps: Take Control of Your Diabetes Health
If you are living with pre-diabetes, type 2 or type 1 diabetes, there are many things to monitor to prevent long-term complications. You have the opportunity to directly influence the impact of diabetes on your health and life. You are in charge of the course of your disease on a daily basis, bite by bite and step by step.
A multitude of smartphone apps have been developed to help you simplify the management of your disease. As of 2013, there were hundreds of apps specifically tailored for people with diabetes. Now, in 2020, there must be even more! Diabetes-focused apps build bridges between data, patients, and healthcare providers. All the moving parts including food intake, carbohydrates, medications, insulin, exercise, blood glucose values, mood, and notes can be recorded and saved in one storage unit. This information can then be synced to generate reports for your healthcare provider to review at your next appointment.
Research is being conducted on the use of diabetes apps in relation to outcomes of diabetes management. Current research indicates that using a diabetes app results in decreased A1c, lower body weight, and reduction in waist circumference for patients as they become more engaged with their diabetes.
Selecting a diabetes app can be daunting because there are so many to choose from with many different features. Consider what your overall comfort level is with technology. If you love technology, one of the more comprehensive apps might be ideal for you. If you are over 55 years of age, you may be looking for simplicity without a barrage of bells and whistles. Most of these apps are free, and many have the option to step up to an advanced version for a small fee.
Here are seven diabetes apps that have received good reviews for you to start your app search:
Glucose Buddy: Apple/Android- standard version. Free.
Glucose Buddy can track blood glucose, insulin, medication, food, carbs, A1c, steps, and physical activity. It includes an extensive food database, lets you scan bar codes to grab nutrition information from food products, and generates reports.
Diabetes Connect: Apple/Android. Free.
This is a simple app to operate. You can track blood sugar, meals, medications, insulin. If there’s a feature in the app you don’t need, you can switch it off.
Sugar Sense: Apple/Android. Free.
This is simple to operate. You can track blood glucose, carbohydrate intake medications, blood pressure, steps. It will sync with your Fitbit. It also can access recipes and generate reports.
MySugr: Apple/Android-standard version. Free.
This app tracks food, carbohydrates, medications, blood glucose, mood, and generates reports. You can includes meal photos with the “pro” version.
One Drop: Apple/Android. Free.
One Drop tracks food, carbohydrates, blood glucose, medications, and mood. It has an integrated nutrition database and allows you to set reminders and generate reports.
Health2Sync: Apple/Android –standard version. Free .
You can purchase a cable to upload glucometer readings to the app. For each glucose entry, you can add notes about medications, mood, exercise, meals, photos of meals. You can also track blood pressure, weight, and A1c.
Diabetes Tracker: Apple/Android. $10.00.
Diabetes Tracker tracks food, carbohydrates, medication, insulin, blood glucose value, water intake, and physical activity. It has a built-in barcode scanner and food database. An additional feature is a GPS tracker to log distances for walking, running or bicycling.
You can google each of these apps and read more about their features online. Select 3 or 4, download, and give them a test drive. See if you feel a sense of relief because you have all your important diabetes info in one spot. You can easily see an overview of how you are doing with your management tools on a daily basis. This is you taking charge of your health and life. This is empowerment.
CB
