More than 40% of New York adults suffer from a chronic disease such as heart disease, hypertension,
cancer, diabetes, stroke, and arthritis. Chronic diseases are responsible for most of our nation’s health care costs.
Healthy diet, exercise, and getting enough sleep may help prevent certain chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
If you have a chronic condition, there are important steps you can take to cope and get more enjoyment out of life:
- Understand your condition – Ask your doctor or nurse for more information and for helpful websites where you can educate yourself.
- Adopt good habits – Stop smoking, exercise, and lose weight if you need to. Many people with heart disease and diabetes, for example, have been able to come off medications after losing weight.
- Take responsibility – Learn how to monitor your condition and help yourself. For example, check your blood pressure if you have hypertension, and check your feet daily if you have diabetes.
- See your primary doctor – Since all your doctors may not be communicating with each other, keep your primary care physician informed so they can see the whole picture and make sure you are getting the most appropriate care.
- Keep your family involved – Your family can be a great source of support so communicate with them about your condition, medication, and treatments. Healthy lifestyle choices can help your family as well; making changes as a family will not only keep them healthier but will also help keep you on track.
- Get support – Beyond your family, joining a support group of people who are going through the same things you are can be extremely helpful. Another helpful place to turn is to professionals, such as nurses dieticians, who can provide guidance and a personalized approach beyond what your doctors provide. MagnaCare’s nurse case management program, for example, has helped members lose weight, exercise more, stop smoking, and achieve other health goals. They not only look better and feel better, but have even been able to stop taking certain medications.
Taking steps in managing a chronic condition can make it easier to deal with. You will better manage your illness, avoid complications, and prolong your life.
Dr. Bartley Bryt is Chief Medical Officer at Brighton Health Plan Solutions (BHPS), an innovative health care enablement company with several industry-leading products for labor and the public sector, including MagnaCare and Create, a new marketplace of health systems and service platform.
1 thought on “Living with Chronic Conditions”
The Workers Comp system is designed to fail the workers from the first time a workers is hurt , injured or develop an on the job occupational disease or illness. Many times the employers will simply ignore or dismiss the injured worker complaint, never filing a workers comp claim. If the workers is (LUCKY) enough to get the employer to file a workers comp claim on his or her behalf this is where the SCHEME, JOKE or RUNAROUND begins. First the injured is workers is given a list of doctors called a panel) that are provided by none the less the employer, but from the list to make it appear (FAIR) the injured worker can choose which ever one they want.This is where 99.9% of claims are denied , since the doctors are somehow connected to the employer unless the arm, leg or head was left in the machine the doctors will say not work related claimed denied. Again to make the system seems (FAIR) if a claim is denied the workers can appeal in the appeal process if the injured workers do not have a doctor who is willing to take time out from his job to come to court and testify the company lawyers and the insurance company will object to any and all of your doctors statements, progress reports , and assessments and the judge will allow the objections to stand, and again case dismissed. This can go on until you get to the Workers comp Supreme Court by now the injured worker realize that AGENCY that was created to level the playing field is nothing more than a (MIRAGE) . I know all of this because I was diagnosed with an occupational disease , (end stage renal failure) dr. said too much protein in body overworked my kidneys , I worked for a company that manufactured soy powder protein for 14 years, because the dr. did not put in his records work related, he put (UNKNOWN) as the cause, my case is now going to my second appeal. The workers Comp system is not set up to handle occupational diseases or illnesses because doctors are not concern with the cause all their focus is on treatment. The SYSTEm will continue to FAIL the injured workers as long as there are BILLION dollar company who can (BUY) LAWYER, DOCTORS and JUDGES. This is the bottom line and that is all they (GREEDY COMPANIES) are concern about and we all know that this is the (TRUTH THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH SO HELP US GOD.