The Best Way to Manage Chronic Health Conditions

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic diseases and health conditions are the leading causes of illness, disability, and fatality in the United States. 

A chronic disease is defined as a health condition that lasts more than one year and requires ongoing medical attention or limits your daily activities. Common chronic diseases include heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, osteoporosis, and arthritis. 

Unfortunately, once you’ve developed a chronic disease, there usually isn’t a cure. This is why seeing a primary care provider regularly is so important. Your provider can screen regularly for chronic diseases to help prevent them entirely or catch them early enough to slow down the disease progression. 

At HealthStone Primary Care Partners in Hollywood, Florida, our primary care team is passionate about helping you effectively manage your chronic health condition. This month’s blog focuses on lifestyle changes you can make to slow down or even reverse the progression of your chronic illness.

Eat a nutritious diet 

Lack of nutrition puts you at a huge risk of developing chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression, and some cancers. Try to follow these guidelines to pack your meals full of body-fueling nutrition:

• Lower your portion sizes
• Focus on eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein
• Avoid sodium, salt, unhealthy fats, and refined sugars
• Supplement levels of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids

Providing your body with what it needs to function properly and avoiding food that runs your body down will help you fight the disease more effectively. Not to mention, you should also have more energy and an overall feeling of wellness.

Move your body

Exercise can help prevent and manage several chronic health conditions from arthritis to anxiety to osteoporosis. The general recommendation is to do moderate exercise about 150 minutes per week or vigorous exercise 75 minutes per week. If you aren’t currently very active, try doing short intervals throughout the day or just focus on walking around more than you sit. 

Doing a variety of physical activities is best for your body. Try out some exercises that elevate your heart rate such as brisk walking, jogging, biking, or swimming, and integrate some strength training exercises as well.

Stop smoking and limit alcohol

Smoking cigarettes leads to almost half a million deaths in the United States each year. This habit leads to all sorts of chronic diseases such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If you smoke, it’s absolutely vital for your health that you find a way to quit. 

While moderate alcohol consumption won’t be detrimental to your health, excessive use of alcohol can take a toll on your body over time. Heavy drinking has been linked to diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and liver disease. Moderate alcohol use is defined as one drink or less per day for women and two drinks or less for men.

See our primary team regularly

When you see our primary team consistently, we run several tests to look for things such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, and diabetes. If you’re at risk for those conditions or have already developed one, our team will first recommend following the lifestyle change guidelines. 

If those aren’t enough to manage your condition, medications may be the next step. Our team walks you through what medications will work best, and we also review how often you need to see us to monitor how the lifestyle changes and medications are working together. 

To learn more about how to effectively manage your chronic health condition, schedule an appointment with our team by calling our office at 954-466-0850 or booking online today.