Improve Your Chronic Disease Management this Self-Improvement Month

September is Self-Improvement Month and serves as a perfect reminder that there is room for each of us to improve. Improvement can come in the form of enjoying a better quality of life through proper chronic disease management.

This is a great opportunity for patients living with a chronic disease, who often feel helpless, depressed, angry and overwhelmed with the process of managing their conditions, to seek improvements.

There are ways for patients to regain control of their chronic disease and work with their treating physicians to improve their daily lives.

We wanted to share some of those chronic disease management tips and guidelines.

Educate Yourself About Your Condition

Learning as much as you can about your condition has many benefits, including:

• It can help you communicate better with your doctor and caregivers
• You will be better prepared to handle flareups
• You can help educate others about your condition. When people understand they are more willing to help

New scientific findings regarding disease management are published continuously. Discuss these findings with your doctor to see if together you can improve your disease management.

Take an Interest in New Therapies

Biomedical laboratories are working hard to improve on existing therapies and develop new ones. Biologic infusions are the most advanced treatment option for many chronic illnesses. As research progresses, more personalized biologic infusion therapies will likely be approved.

Having an open conversation with your primary care physician may open the doors to getting access to these new medications.

Keep Track of Your Symptoms

It’s difficult to remember every symptom you experience in-between doctor visits. However, discussing these symptoms can help your doctor make the necessary adjustments to your treatment.

Keep a journal of all your symptoms, especially those you feel might be caused by your medication or possible drug interactions.

Be as detailed as possible. Include things such as:

• The time the symptoms started and how long they lasted
• If you had food or drink before the symptoms manifested
• What medications you had taken and how long before the symptoms began

Armed with this information, your doctor can make changes in your medication or dosage as well as suggest lifestyle changes that can help improve your daily life.

Improve Yourself

Incorporating healthy habits into your lifestyle could yield good dividends, including fewer or milder flareups, less severe symptoms, and living longer.

Here are some healthy habits you can adopt:

• Quit Smoking
• Reduce Your Alcohol Intake
• Exercise 
• Lose Weight
• Choose Healthier Foods
• Be More Social
• Get a Hobby 
• Learn a New Language or Skill

Become Your Advocate

Altus Infusion, along with many physicians and organizations, are avid advocates for patients living with chronic diseases. We are fighting to ensure all patients have access to quality, affordable care in convenient locations.

However, the loudest advocate needs to be the patient. Nobody understands better what living with an illness is like than the patients and their caregivers.

Better Chronic Disease Management is Possible!

During this self-improvement month, we urge patients to speak to their doctors to find ways to improve access to care and educate the general public. Together we can make a difference.