Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases take over people’s lives, causing pain, disability, and often despair. Kashif Siddiqui, MD, and Sumera Muzaffar, MD, at Broadway Family Clinic in Pearland, Texas, help people with long-term health problems by providing expert chronic disease management. They monitor your condition, perform regular checkups and tests, and work with your specialist if you have one. Call Broadway Family Clinic to schedule an evaluation or take advantage of the online booking feature to benefit from chronic disease management today.

What are chronic diseases?

Chronic diseases are illnesses that persist for many months or years. Some are incurable and last a lifetime. Chronic diseases can cause distressing problems such as pain, loss of function, weakness, and brain fog (difficulties with memory and clear thinking). Some are life-threatening or life-limiting.

Common chronic diseases include:

• Arthritis
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Fibromyalgia 
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart failure
• Coronary artery disease
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Eczema
• Thyroid disorders
• Asthma and allergies
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• High cholesterol
• Chronic back and neck pain

Mental health problems like depression and anxiety often develop alongside chronic physical diseases.

What treatment do I need for chronic diseases?

Chronic disease treatment varies depending on your condition and its severity. You might need long-term medication, such as beta-blockers for a heart condition, statins for high cholesterol, blood pressure-lowering pills, or metformin for diabetes. You’ll need daily thyroid replacement therapy if you have hypothyroidism, where your body doesn’t make enough thyroid hormone.

Disorders like back and neck pain, arthritis, and fibromyalgia typically benefit from physical therapies, including gentle exercise and therapeutic massage. You might need to change your diet if you have celiac disease (a gluten allergy) or Crohn’s disease, a gastrointestinal autoimmune disorder. 

Your lifestyle also has a significant impact on chronic diseases. Your provider will likely advise you to make changes if necessary, which could include:

• Weight loss
• Quitting smoking
• Reducing alcohol intake
• Exercising more
• Managing stress
• Improving sleep quality
• Eating fewer fatty, salty, processed foods
• Eating more fruits and vegetables

Many patients with chronic diseases see a specialist in addition to their primary care provider. For example, you might visit a cardiologist for heart disease or an oncologist for cancer. Specialists and primary care providers work closely to provide seamless chronic disease management.

What is chronic disease management?

Chronic diseases require regular checkups and treatment monitoring to reduce complication risks and optimize the patients’ quality of life. Broadway Family Clinic offers comprehensive care that makes managing your conditions easier.

Visiting for routine reviews is key to chronic disease management. Your provider checks your vital signs and discusses your symptoms. They also check your medications to ensure you get good symptom control with minimal side effects and run any routine tests.

Call Broadway Family Clinic or request an appointment online today to see how chronic disease management could benefit you.