Chronic Disease Management

Primary care doctors help you manage your chronic disease

Chronic diseases, such as diabetes or heart disease, can be difficult to live with. That’s why it’s important to have a primary care doctor that you trust and see regularly. Primary care doctors diagnose and help you manage most chronic diseases. They also help connect you with a specialty doctor, if your condition requires the extra training of a specialist.

Conditions as heart disease, stroke, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and arthritis are among the most common, costly and preventable of all health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You can take steps to prevent many chronic diseases by reducing unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. The following four unhealthy behaviors you can change cause much of the illness, suffering and early death related to chronic diseases.

• Lack of physical activity
• Poor nutrition
• Tobacco use
• Drinking too much alcohol

Common Chronic Diseases

Diabetes

Symptoms of diabetes can be mild at first, you may have the condition and not know it. However, the chronic high levels of blood glucose (sugar) can cause serious complications that affect the eyes, nerves, heart and other organs. That’s why it’s important for all adults to get screened for diabetes every 3 years beginning at age 45.

Hypertension

Blood pressure is a measure of how hard the blood pushes against the walls of your arteries as it moves through your body. It is normal for blood pressure to go up and down throughout the day. If it stays up, you have high blood pressure also known as hypertension.

High Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a substance found in blood that provides the structure for all of our body’s cells. We need to have some of it so that our cells can function, but too much can lead to a buildup in arteries, known as plaque. Plaque makes it hard for blood to flow through the arteries, causing heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke and other illnesses

Henry Ford has resources to help

At Henry Ford we believe the more you know, the better prepared you are to handle your health challenges. Choose from a variety of resources that include classes, support groups and our Henry Ford LiveWell blog to help get you and keep you on the road to better health.

Health and Wellness Resources

Manage your chronic disease or help a loved one manage theirs with the help and guidance of our many programs and services.