Managing A Chronic Illness

What is a chronic illness? 

A chronic illness is not a name for a specific disease, but rather a term to describe a disease that is long-lasting or recurrent. Examples of chronic diseases are diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer.

The Institute For Optimizing Health Outcomes
Chronic diseases can be debilitating and cause a great amount of strain on both the individual suffering from them, as well as the family that is often left supporting them. I recently came across a very interesting group called the Institute For Optimizing Health Outcomes which promotes self-management of chronic conditions. Patients learn how to effectively manage their conditions and how to live a fulfilling life with their chronic illness. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 50% of patients with chronic diseases do not adhere to doctor recommended therapies and do not follow good health practices, such as eating healthy, exercising and obtaining adequate sleep. This is an alarmingly high statistic and the Institute For Optimizing Health Outcomes has devised a plan that attempts to teach these individuals how to live a healthy and happy life through self-management of symptoms. 


What is self-management?
According to the Institute For Optimizing Health Outcomes website:

Self-management involves the tasks that individuals must undertake to live well with one or more chronic conditions. These tasks include (1) dealing with their medications and other therapies, (2) carrying out their other roles in life, such as work and family, and (3) managing emotions related to their condition on a day-to-day basis. The person’s ability to carry out behaviors related to self-management may be enhanced in many ways, such as improving their understanding of how healthy behaviors are related to living well with a chronic illness, understanding the relation of emotional well being to physical well being, their motivation, social support, barriers or facilitating factors in they environment, and support from their healthcare providers.

This caught my attention because as a student who has extensively studied health and nutrition I find many aspects of living a healthy lifestyle to be second nature for me. Choosing healthy foods, eating a balanced diet and exercising are all incorporated into my daily activities, and it is easy to lose sight of the fact that some individuals have not had access to the same information and guidance as I have. In my opinion, this institute is providing an amazing service that I hope to see implemented by many health-care practitioners, including doctors and dietitians. 
To read more about the institute visit their website at optimizinghealth.org

*Note: I am in no way affiliated with The Institute For Optimizing Health Outcomes, and all opinions stated are my own.