A tidal wave of chronic ill­ness is mak­ing the lives of many peo­ple mis­er­able and over­whelm­ing our health­care sys­tem. Doc­tors are frus­trated in treat­ing these nag­ging, over­lap­ping prob­lems: heart dis­ease, fibromyal­gia, depres­sion, dia­betes, and more. These chronic con­di­tions can be helped by look­ing at the chal­lenges posed by patients who have been hos­pi­tal­ized with sud­den, acute ill­ness, and using anal­o­gous treat­ment strategies.