Chronic Illness

Living and coping with chronic illness can be difficult, especially during the holidays. It often requires stressful changes to your life and the lives of family members closest to you.

Life with chronic illness may bring unexpected challenges, but that doesn't mean you can't be in control of your life. In fact, if you're not, then something or someone else is.

Fifty million Americans have pain; chronic pain, lasting six months or longer and 25 million Americans experience short-term pain from injuries or surgeries annually. Women tend to experience daily pain, miss work because of pain and develop conditions that cause chronic pain. If you experience pain with your chronic illness, as most of us do, you may not always want to complain to your physician.

Chronic illness may have a significant impact on relationships, but two hearts and minds can be marshaled to carry the heavy load. Expert and author, Barbara Kivowitz, shares insights on how deeply health conditions impact relationships and how important those relationships are to eventual recovery and healing.

One of the most potent forms of medicine isn't something you can buy at a pharmacy or get at the doctor's office. No one else can give you this medicine or perform its magic for you. It's movement, simple physical activity that can have profound healing effects. And it's something only you can do for yourself.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing and remitting condition characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. There are two main forms of IBD: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. While the exact cause of IBD is not known, it is believed to be related to a combination of genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. IBD can lead to a range of complications and can impact the quality of life of those affected.

Most people don't know they have Hepatitis C and there are no symptoms, why should you even be concerned? You should be concerned because while some people have a normal life span without any significant liver damage, others develop irreversible scarring resulting in liver failure or liver cancer.

In this book excerpt, Leanne Chilton shares her very personal story about battling seizures caused by epilepsy and how surgery was her path to wellness. Surgery isn't for everyone, but in this case it was successful and could inspire someone you know.

For someone dealing with chronic illness there are now mobile resources available on demand that didn't exist even a few years ago. So, here are some of my favorite mobile apps.

Why can't we succeed? What exactly is holding us back from reaching our goals? What makes us grasp onto our habits and phobias and not want to let them go? Our self-esteem.