We’ve all been there. Those moments that leave your pulse racing and heart pounding. Stress is annoying, difficult to combat, and uncontrollable at times. Unfortunately, stress is also something that most of us deal with regularly. Thanks to life in general, stress seems to be a normal part of the North American way of life.

There’s no doubt that stress is unhealthy. That feeling of angst and frustration can lead to all kinds of health problems. But, most of us can’t avoid feeling stressed out. It seems that stress is just a part of modern life. Even though the new app for iPhone called Stress Check can’t help you get rid of stress, it might be able to tell you when your stress levels are out of control, so that you can work on calming yourself down.

How Stress Check Works

After downloading the Stress Check app ($0.99), you can select your birth date and gender. Then, the app will ask you to place your index finger over your iPhone’s camera lens. By detecting your heart rate through the phone’s camera lens, the app is able to measure your stress level (or so it says). Once the app has finished measuring your stress level, your results will appear.

I had consumed a large coffee prior to taking the Stress Check test, so my stress level was a bit high. The app told me to take a break, walk, or find some other calming activity. I’m assuming that the caffeine in my coffee impacted my stress level, though this may not be the case. Seemingly, Stress Check works well, though the correlation between a person’s heart beat and that same person’s stress level is unknown to this reviewer.

Sharing and Saving Your Stress Level

Azumio (the developers of this app) have made it possible to share and save your stress test results. You can share the results with your Twitter followers of Facebook friends, though I’m not sure why you’d want to do this. Perhaps you could send a note to your boss? This may gain you a day or two away from work!

It is also possible to save your test results, so that you can view these results at another time. If you add a note to your current result (example: “test taken after consuming coffee”), you can try a different kind of test next time. There’s no doubt that your stress level will be higher at the end of the day than it is during the morning hours, so that’s something that you could check out.

How This App Could Improve

When my stress level was deemed “high,” the app told me to relax and take a walk. This is helpful information, but app developers could take these tips a bit further. For example, a test that resulted in a high stress level could provide users with the option to go through a yoga routine or listen to a meditation recording. These things would be helpful, and users may benefit from a few moments of relaxation.

All in all, the Stress Check app is a solid app that many people might find appealing. If you have stress problems, this app can help you keep calm. Then again, you’d have to test your pulse every time you feel upset or agitated, and most people don’t think about using an iPhone app when these feelings arise. Still, the Stress Check app is a great app to download.