Here's What You Need to Know About Chronic Care

Managing a chronic illness, like diabetes, can be confusing and frustrating. How often should you see a doctor? Adjust medications? Have blood drawn? Timothy Beck, MD and his staff at Life Point Medical, LLC, are chronic care experts who will help you meet the challenge of managing your chronic condition.

Chronic doesn’t mean trivial

When we think about acute diseases, we think about sudden and serious conditions that can lay us low but may be curable. Chronic diseases, on the other hand, conjure images of diseases that simmer—maybe for decades— and for which there is no cure.

Chronic diseases are conditions that last one year or longer, require continual medical care, and/or limit the normal activities of daily living, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The top chronic conditions are heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Chronic diseases affect millions of Americans, according to statistics supplied by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

• About 117 million people in the U.S. — half of all American adults — struggle with a chronic condition. One in four has two or more chronic ailments.
• Chronic diseases accounted for 7 of the top 10 causes of death in 2014.
• 84% of national health care spending goes to people suffering from chronic conditions.

What does chronic care include?

Chronic care includes all the tools you need to understand and manage your chronic condition. The primary tool is a doctor who can:

• Help you understand the nature of your chronic illness (and correct any misconceptions you have), its necessary treatment, and likely progression.
• Explain to you what lifestyle changes can make living with a chronic condition easier, like getting down to fighting weight if you have type 2 diabetes.
• Treat the whole person, not just the illness. Chronic care management may mean helping you deal with the emotional fallout from an illness for which there is no cure.

Dr. Beck and the team at  Life Point Medical are eager to help you manage your chronic conditions. But they’d be much happier if you never developed serious illnesses.

Here are CDC-recommended steps you can take now to avoid or delay developing chronic conditions.

Quit smoking

Even if you’ve been smoking for decades, quitting now can help prevent or delay developing heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and lung cancer.

Exercise regularly

Exercise truly is the fountain of youth and helps you avoid chronic diseases, as well as feel and sleep better.

Drink moderately

Drinking too much and binging can increase your risk of liver diseases and cancer. If you have to drink (and if you don’t drink now, don’t start), drink moderately, roughly one drink per day.

Dr. Beck is the chronic care provider who will stick with you throughout your chronic illness and stay actively involved in your disease management and treatments to ensure the best physical and emotional outcomes.

If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Beck and his chronic care team, call Life Point Medical, LLC, at 706-534-6566, or schedule your appointment online.