Symptom Journal Agent

Tracks symptoms over time with trigger correlation, severity trends, and generates doctor-visit summaries. This agent maintains a local symptom log where you can record daily entries including symptoms, severity, potential triggers, medications, and contextual notes. Over time it identifies patterns, correlations between triggers and flare-ups, and produces formatted summaries you can bring to medical appointments.

Supported Platforms & Integrations

Platform	Integration Type	Features
Apple Health	Data import/export	Correlate symptoms with activity, heart rate, sleep data
MyFitnessPal	CSV import	Food diary correlation with symptom flare-ups
Google Calendar	ICS import	Correlate symptoms with schedule, stress events, travel
Notion	Markdown export	Structured symptom database with tags and filters
Obsidian	Markdown export	Daily notes integration with symptom tracking templates
PDF Export	Document generation	Formatted doctor-visit summary for medical appointments

When to Use

• Chronic condition tracking: Log daily symptoms for conditions like migraines, IBS, fibromyalgia, eczema, or autoimmune disorders to find triggers
• New symptom investigation: Track a new or worsening symptom over 2-4 weeks before a doctor visit to provide objective data
• Medication effectiveness monitoring: Log symptoms before, during, and after starting a new medication to measure actual impact
• Food sensitivity identification: Correlate digestive symptoms with food diary entries to identify potential food triggers
• Allergy pattern detection: Track seasonal or environmental symptom patterns alongside weather, pollen, and location data
• Post-surgical recovery logging: Document recovery milestones, pain levels, and complications for follow-up appointments
• Mental health mood tracking: Log mood, anxiety, energy alongside physical symptoms to identify mind-body connections

Alternatives to Consider

• Bearable app: If you want a polished mobile app with built-in correlation analysis and charting
• CareClinic or Symple: If you need medication reminders integrated with symptom tracking
• Direct physician consultation: If symptoms are severe, worsening rapidly, or include emergency warning signs — do not delay care to collect data

Quick Start

Copy
agent: symptom-journal-agent
config:
  log_file: ~/health/symptom-journal.yaml
  conditions:
    - migraines
    - ibs
  tracked_symptoms:
    - headache
    - nausea
    - abdominal_pain
    - bloating
    - fatigue
    - brain_fog
  tracked_triggers:
    - food
    - stress_level
    - sleep_hours
    - weather
    - caffeine
    - alcohol
    - exercise
    - menstrual_cycle
  severity_scale: 1-10
  reminder_time: "21:00"

Example Input (daily entry):

Date: 2025-03-10
Symptoms:
  - headache: 6/10 (started 2PM, throbbing, right temple)
  - nausea: 3/10 (mild, evening)
  - fatigue: 5/10 (all day)
Triggers noted:
  - sleep: 5.5 hours (poor)
  - stress: 7/10 (work deadline)
  - food: skipped lunch, heavy dinner
  - weather: barometric pressure drop
  - caffeine: 3 cups (last at 4PM)
Medications:
  - ibuprofen 400mg at 3PM (moderate relief after 45 min)
Notes: "Headache started during afternoon meeting. Worse
than usual — possibly combined sleep + stress + weather."

Example Output (after 30+ entries):

SYMPTOM PATTERN ANALYSIS — 30 Day Summary
============================================

FREQUENCY:
  Headache days: 14/30 (47%)  — Severity avg: 5.2/10
  Nausea days: 8/30 (27%)     — Severity avg: 3.1/10
  Fatigue days: 22/30 (73%)   — Severity avg: 4.8/10
  Brain fog days: 11/30 (37%) — Severity avg: 4.0/10

SEVERITY TREND:
  Headaches:  ━━━━╲━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  Stable (no trend)
  Fatigue:    ━━━━━━━━━━━━╱━━━━━━━━  Worsening (+0.8/week)
  Overall:    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  Stable

TOP TRIGGER CORRELATIONS:
1. Sleep < 6 hours → 78% chance of headache next day (p=0.002)
2. Stress > 6/10 → 65% chance of headache same day (p=0.01)
3. Barometric pressure drop → 71% headache correlation (p=0.008)
4. Skipped meals → 55% fatigue + brain fog (p=0.03)
5. Caffeine > 2 cups → no significant headache correlation (p=0.34)

MEDICATION EFFECTIVENESS:
  Ibuprofen 400mg: Avg relief 3.2 points, onset 40 min
    Used 11 times, effective (<3 severity after) 73% of times
  Sumatriptan: Avg relief 4.8 points, onset 25 min
    Used 4 times, effective 100% of times

NOTABLE PATTERNS:
- Headache + nausea combo occurs 6/14 headache days (43%)
- Tuesday and Wednesday are highest headache frequency days
- Fatigue trending upward — consider discussing with doctor

Advanced Configuration

Condition-Specific Templates

Copy
# Migraine tracking
migraine_template:
  symptoms: [headache, aura, nausea, light_sensitivity, sound_sensitivity]
  triggers: [sleep, stress, food, weather, hormonal, caffeine, alcohol, screens]
  aura_types: [visual, sensory, speech, motor]
  headache_location: [left, right, bilateral, frontal, occipital]
  headache_quality: [throbbing, pressing, stabbing, dull]

# IBS tracking
ibs_template:
  symptoms: [abdominal_pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, gas, nausea]
  triggers: [food, stress, sleep, exercise, menstrual_cycle]
  stool_scale: bristol  # Bristol Stool Chart 1-7
  food_detail: true  # Log specific foods, not just meals

Parameters Reference

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
log_file	string	./symptom-journal.yaml	Path to local symptom log file
conditions	array	[]	Tracked conditions for template suggestions
tracked_symptoms	array	required	Symptoms to track daily
tracked_triggers	array	[]	Potential triggers to monitor
severity_scale	string	1-10	Severity rating scale
reminder_time	string	null	Daily logging reminder time
analysis_window	number	30	Days to include in pattern analysis
min_entries_for_correlation	number	14	Minimum entries before running correlations
doctor_report_format	string	summary	summary, detailed, timeline
export_format	string	markdown	markdown, pdf, csv
include_weather	bool	false	Auto-include weather data by location
location_zip	string	""	ZIP code for weather correlation
medication_tracking	bool	true	Track medication usage and effectiveness

Core Concepts

Concept	Description
Symptom Severity Tracking	Consistent 1-10 rating for each symptom enables trend analysis and medication effectiveness measurement
Trigger Correlation	Statistical analysis of which logged triggers precede symptom flare-ups within 24-48 hours
Flare Pattern	A cluster of high-severity days that may reveal cyclical patterns (weekly, monthly, seasonal)
Medication Effectiveness	Tracking pre and post-medication severity scores to calculate average relief and response rate
Doctor Report	A formatted summary of symptom frequency, severity trends, trigger correlations, and medication response for clinical review

Agent Workflow:

  Daily Entry ──> Validate ──> Store Locally ──> Analysis Engine
  (symptoms,      & Normalize   (YAML/JSON        |
   triggers,      Severity      append)       ┌───┼───────┐
   medications)                               v   v       v
                                          Frequency Trigger  Medication
                                          Trends    Correl.  Effective.
                                              |       |         |
                                              v       v         v
                                         ┌───────────────────────────┐
                                         │   Pattern Detection &     │
                                         │   Doctor Report Generator │
                                         └───────────────────────────┘
                                                     |
                                              ┌──────┼──────┐
                                              v      v      v
                                           Summary  PDF   Alerts
                                           View    Export  (trends)

Workflow Examples

Scenario 1: Migraine Trigger Identification

Input: 60 days of migraine logging with detailed triggers (sleep, food, stress, weather, hormones) Process: Correlation analysis across all trigger combinations, pattern detection for multi-trigger events Output: Sleep deprivation + barometric drop = 89% migraine probability. Chocolate alone: no correlation. Stress alone: moderate. Report generated for neurologist.

Scenario 2: IBS Food Sensitivity Discovery

Input: 45 days of digestive symptom logging with detailed food diary, Bristol stool scale Process: Eliminate common correlations, isolate specific food groups, analyze 24-48 hour lag effects Output: Dairy shows strong 12-hour lag correlation with bloating (p=0.004). Gluten: no significant correlation. High FODMAP meals: moderate same-day correlation. Elimination diet plan suggested.

Scenario 3: New Medication Effectiveness Tracking

Input: 14 days pre-medication baseline, 30 days on new medication, tracked symptoms and side effects Process: Compare baseline severity averages vs treatment period, track side effect emergence and trajectory Output: Primary symptom reduced 3.2 points average (significant). Side effect (drowsiness) peaked week 1, declining. Doctor report compares periods with statistical confidence.

Best Practices

1. Log at the same time daily: Consistency in logging time reduces recall bias — evening logging captures the full day while details are fresh
2. Be specific with severity ratings: Anchor your scale (e.g., 1 = barely noticeable, 5 = interferes with tasks, 10 = worst imaginable) and reference these anchors each time
3. Track even good days: Zero-symptom days are valuable data points for correlation analysis — they help identify what went RIGHT
4. Note medication timing precisely: Time of dose and time of relief onset matter for effectiveness analysis — "took ibuprofen" is less useful than "took 400mg at 3PM, relief began at 3:45PM"
5. Print the doctor report: Bringing a formatted symptom summary to appointments dramatically improves the quality of your medical consultations — physicians consistently report preferring objective data over verbal recall

Common Issues

Issue: Too many triggers make correlations unreliable Cause: Tracking 15+ triggers with only 20 entries creates statistical noise — too many variables, too few data points Fix: Start with 4-6 most suspected triggers. After 30+ entries, add additional triggers one at a time. The agent warns when the trigger-to-entry ratio is too high for reliable analysis.

Issue: Severity ratings drift over time (recalibration) Cause: Your perception of a "6/10" may shift as you habituate to symptoms or your baseline changes Fix: Re-read your anchor definitions monthly. The agent detects systematic severity drift (e.g., all ratings shifting down 1-2 points) and flags it for recalibration.

Issue: Missing entries create gaps in pattern analysis Cause: Busy days, travel, or feeling well can all lead to skipped entries Fix: At minimum, log a "no symptoms today" entry — it takes 5 seconds and preserves the data timeline. The agent counts consecutive gaps and warns when analysis reliability drops below threshold.

Privacy & Data Handling

All symptom data is stored exclusively in local files on your machine. No health information, symptom data, medication details, trigger logs, or medical history is ever transmitted to any external service. The local YAML/JSON log file is human-readable and can be edited, backed up, or deleted at any time. Doctor reports are generated as local files and are only shared if you manually print or send them. This agent does not connect to any health platform API — integrations are import-only from files you export yourself. This tool is for personal tracking only and does not provide medical diagnosis, treatment recommendations, or clinical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare providers for medical decisions.