Managing multiple chronic conditions can be a complex problem, especially as you age. Medications and treatments for various conditions can be confusing. Your doctor can help.
What You Need To Know About Chronic Conditions
Chronic conditions can affect multiple areas of your body, including:
- Bones and joints
- Organs and tissues
- Musculoskeletal system
- Immune system
- Circulatory system
- Nervous system
Chronic conditions can develop over time, becoming conditions and diseases you learn to live with. The most common chronic conditions and diseases include:
- Cancer
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- COPD
- Epilepsy
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular disease
- Obesity
- Lupus
- Dementia
- Kidney and liver disease
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol levels
- High blood sugar levels
Many chronic conditions can depress the immune system, so it’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. To help manage multiple chronic conditions, you need to:
- Eat a healthy diet of foods that are low fat, low sugar, low salt, and are nutrient-dense
- Exercise regularly for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week
- Avoid smoking and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol
- Practice stress management techniques, including yoga, stretching, and deep breathing exercises
Your doctor can help you develop dietary modifications, exercise routines, and stress-reduction techniques to enhance your overall health.
Multiple chronic conditions also require multiple medications, often prescribed by more than one doctor. Taking multiple medications can increase the potential for drugs to interact with each other, which can:
- Decrease the effectiveness of the medications
- Produce a harmful, potentially life-threatening outcome
- Prevent one or more medications from working
Your doctor can provide medication management services, which involves thoroughly reviewing your medications. Your doctor will be evaluating:
- Which medications you are taking
- Why are you taking each of the medications
- How you are benefiting from each of the medications
- Whether you need to discontinue or add certain medications