Chronic Disease Prevention and Management

Health is a state of complete physical, spiritual and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease and physical defects. A healthy lifestyle is a lifestyle of an individual with the aim of preventing disease and promoting health. Healthy lifestyle is a concept of human life, aimed at improving and maintaining health through appropriate nutrition, physical fitness, morale and rejection of bad habits.

What are chronic diseases?

• AIDS;
• Chronic adrenal cortex insufficiency (Addison’s disease);
• Nonspecific ulcerative colitis;
• Cystic fibrosis;
• Hemodialysis patients;
• Periodic illness;
• Hyperplasia of the prostate;
• Hypoparathyroidism;
• Multiple sclerosis;
• Severe myasthenia gravis;
• Wilson-Konovalov’s disease;
• Thalassemia major;
• People after organ transplants;
• Gaucher disease;
• Chronic psychosis;
• Neoplastic disease;
• Hemophilia;
• Chronic liver disease;
• Chronic heart failure;
• Multiple myeloma;
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease;
• Alzheimer’s disease;
• Rheumatoid arthritis;
• Ppsoriatic arthritis;
• Polymyalgia rheumatica;
• Degenarative joint diseases or osteoarthritis;
• Spondyloarthropathy;
• Ankylosing spondylitis;
• Reiter’s syndrome;
• Arthritis associated with intestinal inflammation;
• Undifferentiated forms of spondyloarthritis;
• Diabetes (is diabetes a chronic disease?);
• Chronic autoimmune diseases:
• Systemic lupus erythematosus;
• Antiphospholipid syndrome;
• Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma);
• Mixed lesion of connective tissue (Sharp’s syndrome);
• Polymyositis dermatomyositis;
• Recurrent polychondritis;
• Chronic microcrystalline arthritis;
• Gout;
• Chondrocalcinosis;
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis;
• Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, JRA;
• Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, JIA;
• Juvenile Chronic Arthritis, JCA;
• Oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis;
• Polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis;
• Systemic Still’s disease in adults – juvenile idiopathic arthritis or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis;
• Juvenile spondyloarthropathy;
• Chronic vasculitis;
• Polyarteritis nodosa;
• Microscopic polyangiitis;
• Vasculitis of Charg-Strauss;
• Giant cell arteritis;
• Wegener’s granulomatosis;
• Takayasu syndrome;
• Behcet’s disease;
• Systematic chronic amyloidosis;
• Fibromyalgia requiring chronic care;
• Ataxia-telangiectasia;
• Family dysautonomy;
• Pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH);
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS);
• Psoriasis;
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease;
• Bronchial asthma;
• Chronical bronchitis;
• Emphysema;
• Pompe disease;
• Purulent hydradenitis.

Healthy lifestyle elements

A healthy lifestyle is an active participation in work, social, family and household, leisure forms of human life.

• education from early childhood healthy habits and skills;
• environment: safe and favorable for living, knowledge about the impact of surrounding objects on health;
• rejection of bad habits: self-poisoning with legal drugs (alcoholic, tobacco-eating) and illegal;
• nutrition: moderate, corresponding to the physiological characteristics of a particular person, awareness of the quality of the food consumed;
• movement: a physically active life, including special physical exercises (for example, gymnastics), taking into account age and physiological characteristics;
• body hygiene: compliance with the rules of personal and public hygiene, first aid skills;
• hardening;

Your physiological state of a person is greatly influenced by your psycho-emotional state, which, in turn, depends on your mental attitudes. Therefore, some authors also highlight the following aspects of a healthy lifestyle in addition:

• emotional well-being: mental hygiene, the ability to cope with your own emotions, difficult situations;
• intellectual well-being: your ability to recognize and use new information for optimal action in new circumstances;
• spirituamedil well-being: the ability to set truly meaningful, constructive life goals and strive for them, optimism.

10 tips for chronic disease prevention

There are 10 tips developed by an international group of doctors, nutritionists and psychologists that form the basis of a healthy lifestyle. By following them, you can prolong and make our life more enjoyable.

1. Do crosswords, learn foreign languages, do mental calculations – all these activities train the brain. Thus, the process of age-related degradation of mental abilities slows down; the work of the heart, circulatory system and metabolism is activated.
2. Work is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Find a job that suits you best. According to scientists, this will help you look younger.
3. Don’t eat too much. Instead of the usual 2,500 calories, you get around 1,500. This helps to maintain the activity of cells, their unloading. Also, one should not go to extremes and eat too little.
4. The menu should be age-appropriate. Liver and nuts can help 30-year-old women slow down the appearance of their first wrinkles. Selenium, found in kidneys and cheese, is good for men over 40 and helps relieve stress. After 50 years, people need magnesium, which keeps the heart in shape and calcium, which is good for bones, and fish will help protect the heart and blood vessels.
5. Have your own opinion on everything. A conscious life will help you to avoid depression.
6. Love and tenderness will help keep you young longer, so find yourself a mate. The hormone of happiness (endorphin), which is produced in the body when a person is in love, helps to strengthen the immune system.
7. Sleep in a cool room, this helps to preserve youth. The fact is that the metabolism in the body and the manifestation of age characteristics also depend on the ambient temperature.
8. Move more often. Scientists have proven that even eight minutes of exercise per day prolongs life.
9. Pamper yourself periodically. Despite the recommendations regarding a healthy lifestyle, sometimes you can eat something tasty.
10. Don’t always suppress your anger. Various diseases, even malignant tumors, are more susceptible to people who constantly scold themselves, instead of telling them what upsets them, and sometimes even arguing.

Optimal work and adequate rest also affect our health. Vigorous activity, not only physical but also mental, has a good effect on the nervous system, strengthens the heart, blood vessels and the body as a whole. There is a certain law of labor, which is known to many. People who are engaged in physical labor need rest, which will not be associated with physical activity, and it is better if mental stress is carried out during the rest. If your work is related to mental activity, it is useful to engage yourself in physical work during rest.

Such a concept as a daily routine is less and less common in the life of a modern person, but this factor also has an important role in maintaining health. The rhythm of a person’s life must necessarily include time for work, rest, sleep, and food. A person who does not follow the daily routine becomes irritable over time, overwork accumulates, such people are more likely to be stressed and ill. Unfortunately, it is difficult for a modern person to maintain a good daily routine, they have to sacrifice time allotted for sleep, eat only when they have time for it, etc. A correct daily routine will not only help keep you healthy but also better organize your time.

Also, our health depends on good sleep. Adequate sleep is essential for the normal functioning of the nervous system. The need for sleep may vary from person to person, but on average it is recommended to sleep at least 8 hours. Regular lack of sleep leads to decreased performance and severe fatigue. In order not to be tormented by insomnia, it is necessary to stop physical or mental work 1 hour before bedtime. The last meal should be no later than 2 hours before bedtime. It is better to sleep in a well-ventilated room, and it is also advisable to go to bed at the same time.

Exercise is one of the most important means of promoting health. Even a small, daily 20-minute exercise is hugely beneficial. Gymnastics, athletics, outdoor games are very useful for the cardiovascular system, lungs, strengthening the musculoskeletal system. Jogging has a positive effect on the nervous and endocrine systems. Walking can help you lose weight. It is estimated that 1 hour of brisk walking burns up to 35 grams of adipose tissue.

Seniors can’t forget about a healthy lifestyle either. Even an elderly person needs a physical activity that is optimal for his or her age. Insufficient physical activity promotes obesity, metabolic diseases, increases the risk of diabetes, disrupts the activity of the gastrointestinal tract. Remember that physical activity at this age should be dosed and age-appropriate.