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Chronic Disease Management Specialist

Signature Health and Wellness

Family Medicine located in Lavergne, TN

The CDC reports that 60% of all adults have one chronic disease and 40% of them have two or more. These illnesses require ongoing chronic disease management to ensure they don’t progressively worsen. Dr. Moses Swauncy and the medical team at Signature Health and Wellness provide comprehensive chronic disease management, including helping you with diet, exercise, and weight loss, and providing prescription medications. To schedule an appointment, call the office in LaVergne, Tennessee, or use the online booking tool.

Chronic Disease Management Q & A

What should I know about chronic disease?

Here’s one of the most important things to know about chronic diseases: After a chronic disease develops, it can’t be cured. That’s when your health depends on long-term chronic disease management.

These are a few examples of the most common chronic diseases:

  • High blood pressure
  • Arthritis
  • Diabetes
  • Heart disease and heart failure
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • High cholesterol
  • Thyroid disease
  • Osteoporosis
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Most chronic diseases develop slowly over years, which gives you time to prevent most illnesses. If you schedule regular preventive health visits, Dr. Swauncy and the Signature Health and Wellness team can diagnose a potential problem in time to stop its progression to a serious illness.

What symptoms might I develop due to chronic disease?

Asthma and COPD cause difficulty breathing, wheezing, and coughing. Otherwise, chronic diseases don’t cause any symptoms for many years. You’ll notice symptoms when the disease has progressed enough to cause significant physical damage.

What is chronic disease management?

After you’re diagnosed with a chronic disease, the team at Signature Health and Wellness develop a plan to control your disease and prevent it from worsening. When chronic disease isn’t well managed, it causes complications like kidney failure, heart attack, and stroke.

Chronic disease management is different for each type of illness. Here are a few examples.

Diabetes

Managing diabetes means keeping your blood sugar within a normal range. Blood sugar levels can be controlled with dietary changes (limiting sugary carbohydrates), exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight. Your Signature Health and Wellness practitioner may also prescribe medications that lower blood sugar.

High blood pressure

For patients with high blood pressure, disease management means lowering your blood pressure and keeping it within healthy limits. Like diabetes, the first line of treatment is diet, exercise, and weight loss. Prescription medications are available if your blood pressure doesn’t respond to lifestyle changes.

COPD

Long-term management of COPD includes reducing flare-ups by avoiding the things that trigger asthma or breathing difficulties, stopping smoking, and using inhaled medications to keep airways clear.

What role does emotional well-being have in chronic disease management?

The Signature Health and Wellness team is concerned about your emotional well-being because long-term management and ongoing worry about progressive chronic disease takes an emotional toll. Many patients find their illness causes more stress, as well as depression and anxiety.

At the same time, emotional problems worsen your chronic disease and can throw your management plan off track. The Signature Health and Wellness team take the time to talk with you, evaluate your emotional health, and help you find ways to eliminate stress and overcome depression and anxiety.

When you need expert chronic disease management, call Signature Health and Wellness or book an appointment online.

*The content provided on this website is not intended for medical information.