Life with a chronic disease or illness is not easy and it has negative impact on seniors’ quality of life. Bad news is, it tends to get worse overtime especially if the senior in question refuses to seek help from healthcare providers.
According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 7 out of 10 seniors are living with at least one chronic disease, about 5 of them are contending with two. Chronic conditions are longterm and they are usually not curable. Furthermore, chronic diseases have a tendency to be progressive thus making the senior suffer progressively too, let say, from tolerable to unbearable in span of 5 years. Seniors who are living with more than one chronic condition will describe it as “crippling”. Others who are beyond the “unbearable” line require assistance for their everyday chores, personal and household ones.
CDC or Center for Disease Control strongly suggests that chronic diseases be avoided as much as possible since it can lead to many complications and even death later in life. It is possible to avoid chronic diseases since most of them are caused by how you lead your life or in other words, based on your own lifestyle. To lessen your risk of having chronic diseases, CDC recommends: 1) adapt a healthy lifestyle which includes proper diet and regular exercise and 2) submit yourself to preventive measures such as annual medical checkups, screenings and lab tests that are recommended for your age. It is important to note that you should start early, that is, when you are still young as chronic diseases usually start early.
You can blame your genes too since some of known chronic conditions are inherited or if you haven’t yet, your genes may put you in higher risk of acquiring these conditions later in life. However, chronic conditions are treatable, if not, then manageable. Seniors need not suffer from chronic diseases since their doctors can help them find the right medications for them to use and with lots of support from their caregivers, it is not impossible for seniors to still live their lives as normally as your condition would allow.
Armed with all the information you need to battle chronic conditions, seniors and caregivers can now keep their conditions under control. Take advantage too of the things technology is giving us nowadays. Take for example assistive devices specifically designed for seniors with disability, these things are sold in the market to help seniors with their special needs. They may be expensive but taking into consideration the amount of comfort it can give to the senior, it might be well worth the cost.
