Chronic Care Management

Once chronic diseases develop, they can’t be cured. But you can still take steps to protect your health and enjoy an active life with help from chronic care management.  

Chronic care management provides the medical treatment you need to keep your body healthy, reduce or eliminate your symptoms, and stop the disease from getting worse.

What conditions need chronic care management?

These are only a few examples of chronic diseases that need ongoing management: 

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Chronic kidney disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

All of the conditions listed below heart disease (including asthma and COPD) directly contribute to cardiovascular conditions, potentially leading to heart attacks and strokes.

Can I prevent conditions that need chronic care management?

You can prevent most chronic conditions, but not all. For example, you can’t prevent asthma. 

But diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure go through a stage where your levels are high, but don’t yet qualify as full-blown disease. Lowering your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure at that stage can stop the disease in its tracks.

Most chronic diseases develop slowly over many years of unhealthy lifestyle habits, including:

• Poor diet (too much sugar, salt, calories, and refined foods)
• Lack of exercise
• Ongoing stress
• Being overweight or obese
• Smoking
• Alcohol abuse

If you make lifestyle changes before the disease takes hold, you can stop the problem from developing.

What should I expect during chronic care management?

The skilled Lorven Heart and Vascular Institute, LLC, providers evaluate each person and create a personalized plan to manage their chronic disease.

The goal is to keep all of your biological markers (biomarkers) within the healthy range. For example, your blood pressure and blood levels of sugar and cholesterol must stay within a precise range to ensure you stay healthy and stop the disease from worsening.

Your provider uses two strategies:

Lifestyle modifications

Lifestyle modifications are always part of your chronic care management. Even after you’re diagnosed, you can keep your condition controlled and slow or stop its progression by changing unhealthy lifestyle habits.

Medications

If lifestyle changes aren’t enough to keep your disease managed, your provider prescribes medications.

Call Lorven Heart and Vascular Institute, LLC, today or connect online to request an appointment for compassionate chronic care management.