Why are some conditions classified as chronic? Are they always serious?
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Doctors use the term chronic to describe any illness or symtom that goes on for a long period of time. Despending on the condition, the duration may very from months to years to a lifetime. Although many such illnesses are considered incrurable, they can very often be well controlled. The symtoms may come and go and there may be periods when the illness goes into remission, sometimes to the extent that there is virtually no evidence of it at all.
Chronic conditions are generally distinguished from acute illnesses, which occur suddenly, last for a short time and produce rapid changes, such and a high temperature or severe pain. In some but not all cases, acute symtoms worsen until they reach a crisis, after which healing occurs steadily until the patient is back to normal.
Infections tend to follow the acute patern, while chronic disorders more often develop slowly or take te form of occasional flare-ups with long periods of remission in beetween. Many chronic complaints also fall into the general category of degenerative disorders - conditions that involve damage to the structure or fungtion of body tissues.
Not all chronic conditions are serious, however, or cause permanent damage of any sort. Mant people have mild allergies or suffer from migraine headaches from time to time without finding their lives significantly affected. Other patients manage by means of good dietary meansures, a generally healthy way of life, or regular medication to control conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy and migraine. Often they manage to remain almost entirely symtom-free and go on to have a normal life expectancy.
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