Chronic Illness

Chronic Illness Student: Professor: Course title: Date: Chronic Illness In the field of medicine, a chronic illness refers to a disease or human health condition that is recurrent or long lasting in its effects, and cannot be cured but is controllable (Lubkin & Larsen, 2012). The most common chronic illnesses include back pains, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, sickle-cell anemia, stroke, HIV/AIDS and heart disease. A chronic illness differs from other illnesses in different ways. First, a chronic illness has symptoms that persist for a long time, usually more than six months. On the other hand, other illnesses do not have long-lasting symptoms, for instance acute illnesses have symptoms that last only a week or two (Seifter and Seifter, 2010). Secondly, a chronic illness does not heal fast and some cannot be healed at all, unlike other illnesses, which are healed and forgotten easily. Thirdly, symptoms of a chronic illness are not felt until the disease gets worse, unlike other illnesses whose symptoms would be visible and experienced by the patient in less than 6 months (Seifter and Seifter, 2010). Additionally, a chronic illness develops within our bodies, and most chronic illnesses are not transmittable. Their developments are caused or...