Health Advice: Chronic Illness

What is CKD? This is usually diagnosed by a blood test.  It is a long term condition where, in some cases, the function of the kidneys very slowly reduces. This means the kidneys are not as able to do their usual jobs, such as removing excess water and waste from the body. It means we

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a long-term condition, which leads to narrowing of the airways and difficulty breathing. It is usually progressive but deterioration of the symptoms can be slowed with appropriate management. Currently approximately 1.2million people in the UK are diagnosed with COPD. Usually COPD is a condition of older adults and one of

  Asthma is one of the UK’s most common long-term respiratory (airways) diseases with approximately 5.4million people currently receiving treatment for it. It is caused by inflammation of the airways, which can be triggered in multiple situations and leads to restricted breathing. This may present as a wheeze or chronic cough.   It is a

Hypertension   Worldwide hypertension is the leading risk factor for premature death, stroke and heart disease and over 25% of adults in the UK have hypertension. The challenge with hypertension is that often patients remain without symptoms for a significant period of time so the only way to know if you have hypertension is to

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high. There are 2 main types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes – where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin type 2 diabetes – where the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells don’t react to insulin