Wellness, and the Web

If you’re a believer in that age-old adage that health is wealth, then health, fitness and technology go hand in hand in the online world.

For starters, there’s Google Health (www.google.com/health). This hold-all allows you to input and organise all your health info, store your medical records, and also share the information — with not only your family members but also your docs. Right from personal specifics (age, height, weight etc.) to medical conditions, allergies and procedures to drug interactions and medications received, you can record just about everything here. You can save test results, record immunisations, and even keep track of your health insurance. Thus, you’ll always have your complete medical records, history and medical contacts accessible to you anywhere. Besides, the site is easy to use and also provides access to various health topics. If you have a Gmail account, you don’t even need to register for this free service.

Microsoft Health Vault (www.healthvault.com) does something similar by letting users (and their doctors) store and track personal health information online. Unfortunately, this medical records manager is not open to Indian users for the moment.

For general fitness, you should a look at DailyBurn (www.dailyBurn.com), a website that lets you track, on a daily basis, not only your body and workouts status etc., but also your nutrition data, weight management programmes and a lot more. In fact, if weight management is your prime concern try SparkPeople (www.sparkpeople.com). This free membership site give you weight-tracking tools, calories counters, loads of nutritional information and contact with a community of people who are also combating the weighing scales.

And does spending too many hours in front of the computer screen bother your eyes? Perhaps you don’t know this but eyestrain, blurred vision, delayed focusing, headaches, sore/dry/burning eyes, light sensitivity, distorted colour vision, back and neck aches, etc. are all symptoms of something known as Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) that occurs due to uninterrupted hours in front of a computer screen. A free and simple break-reminder programme like EyeDefender (www.eterlab.com/eyedefender/) that “interrupts” your work at pre-defined intervals can help you rest your eyes. Eyedefender can display a pre-assigned image or screensaver, run relaxing visual exercises for you, or pop-up a less obtrusive reminder in the system tray. And you can easily kill it when you don't want to be interrupted.

Think this health and fitness stuff is all blah and you’re as fit as a fiddle? Then maybe you should try and see where you stand in the Marine Corps Fitness test (http://is.gd/4qr2s). Nothing complicated, it comprises only pull-ups, crunches, and a three-mile run. But you must do this in one continuous 2-hour session. Check your age group in the accompanying chart for the minimum fitness requirements.