A challenge
Living with a long-term condition can be a daily challenge. However old you are and however long you've lived with your condition, you’ll have different levels of tolerance and ways of coping.
Take control of your health
Taking care of your own health, or self care, can help you overcome the day-to-day challenges and make the most of life with your condition, rather than avoid or miss out on things because of it. Self care puts you in control. Research shows that people with long-term conditions who take more control of their health have a much better quality of life.
It really helps to lead a healthy lifestyle if you have a long-term condition. Watching what you eat and drink and getting more exercise will boost your general wellbeing, improve your mobility and help ease your symptoms.
Tools to improve your lifestyle
Read our page on how to make
small changes to improve your lifestyle and use our series of
healthy living interactive tools for personalised advice on how to improve your lifestyle.
For more practical tips on living with a long-term condition, you can read or download two leaflets called the Self Care Toolkit and the Pain Toolkit. They're packed with handy tips to help people with a persistent health condition manage better on a day-to-day basis.
The author of the leaflets has asthma and osteoarthritis and experiences pain regularly, so he really understands what it's like to cope with a long-term condition. He gives the kind of practical advice that can really make a difference.
Information leaflets
Finally, you can download a leaflet on most long term conditions from
patient.co.uk. Most patients do not realise that real improvements only truly come when a patient takes responsibility for thier own health - this includes medication and guidelines from their GP. But it goes further than this and includes self management, self awareness and self education. Visit the patient.co.uk and make the most of the resources indicated on this page and you will find that not only wil lyou add years to your life, but that you will add life to your years.