Summary of My Chronic Disease Risk Assessment

Chronic illness: An illness that persists for a long period of time. The term "chronic" comes from the Greek chronos, time and means lasting a long time. A chronic illness is one lasting 3 months or more, by the definition of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. In ancient Greece, the "father of medicine" Hippocrates distinguished diseases that were acute (abrupt, sharp and brief) from those that were chronic. This is still a very useful distinction subacute has been coined to designate the mid-ground between acute and chronic. “What is Lung Cancer?” Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung. Normal lung tissue is made up of cells that are programmed by nature to create lungs of a certain shape and function. Sometimes the instructions to a cell go haywire and that cell and its offspring reproduce wildly, without regard for the shape and function of a lung. That wild reproduction can form tumors that clog up the lung and make it stop functioning as it should. Because of the large size of the lungs, cancer may grow for many years, undetected, without causing suspicion. In fact, lung cancer can spread outside the lungs without causing any symptoms. Adding to the confusion, the most common symptom of lung cancer, a persistent cough, can often be mistaken for a cold or bronchitis. What is cancer? Cancer is not one disease, but a group of diseases that have in common the uncontrolled growth of cells. Any collection of abnormal cells is known as a tumor. The cells of a benign tumor do not spread beyond their initial location; a tumor becomes malignant when the cells spread (or metastasize) to other areas of the body. Cancer is diagnosed when a tumor is found to be malignant and thus has the potential to spread. As we all know, cancer is a major cause of death and