- With Mayo Clinic oncologist
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
read biographyclose windowBiography of
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
"The magic of the electronic village is transforming health information. The mouse and keyboard have extended the stethoscope to the 500 million people now online." - Dr. Edward Creagan
The power of the medium inspires Dr. Edward Creagan as he searches for ways to share Mayo Clinic's vast resources with the general public.
Dr. Creagan, a Newark, N.J., native, is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice medicine and palliative care. He has been with Mayo Clinic since 1973 and in 1999 was president of the staff of Mayo Clinic. Dr. Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was honored in 1995 with the John and Roma Rouse Professor of Humanism in Medicine Award and in 1992 with the Distinguished Mayo Clinician Award, Mayo's highest recognition. He has been recognized with the American Cancer Society Professorship of Clinical Oncology.
He describes his areas of special interest as "wellness as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-financial model" and fitness, mind-body connection, aging and burnout.
Dr. Creagan has been an associate medical editor with Mayo Clinic's Web sites and has edited publications and CD-ROMs and reviewed articles.
"We the team of (the Web site) provide reliable, easy-to-understand health and wellness information so that each of us can have productive, meaningful lives," he says.
Latest entries
- Stress and illness
Nov. 20, 2009
- Reach out
Nov. 7, 2009
- Focus on the finish line
Oct. 30, 2009
- Set limits
Oct. 24, 2009
- Head in the game
Oct. 17, 2009
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Stress blog
-
Feb. 13, 2009
Don't let yourself be dragged down by the economic meltdown
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
We are bludgeoned every day by the numbers. Here is what I am talking about:
- Nearly daily stock market declines
- Plummeting home values
- Swelling ranks of the unemployed and medically uninsured
- Shrinking retirement portfolios
So, what do we do? What can we do? This is the essence of stress: Circumstances that intimately affect us but over which we seemingly have no control. But, there are some things that we can do.
We are not hopeless victims. We are not corks bobbing on an endless sea.
I for one will not mortgage my serenity over these economic events, and I will not squander my peace of mind. Here is what my family and I do. I would certainly appreciate hearing from our blog community as well.
- Know where the money goes. We have found that using one credit card gives us an easy handle on our expenses. (We pay off the charges each month so we aren't charged interest.) At the end of the month, we can review the statement and ask ourselves if we made good choices: "Did we really need that extra dinner out?" "Did I really need a new suit?"
- Have a clear and realistic picture of income. What happens if that hot horse does not win? What happens if the "can't miss stock" does not produce a big dividend? If we work on commission or have a cyclical income, what is the minimum average that we can honestly expect?
- Be vigilant about cyber thieves. With the increasing sophistication of would-be thieves and the amount of personal financial data accessible online, we have to take precautions. We all know never to release social security numbers or related data to any institution unless proper safeguards are in place.
- Keep tabs on all accounts. We have gotten into the habit of accessing our online accounts multiple times each week to be certain that there are no glaring inconsistencies.
- Have an exit strategy. Each one of us needs a plan B. If I lose my job or my benefits, how will I take care of myself and my family? It is far better to address these contingencies during the light and warmth of the day rather than in the darkness of the 11th hour.
- Protect your ability to earn. The most powerful equity or value that we have is our ability to work. One of our colleagues is a surgeon whose work puts tremendous pressure on his back and joints. He has spasms and pain most days, which affects his productivity. He realizes now that if he had taken better care of himself — by exercising and watching his weight — his career might not be in jeopardy.
So, what is the bottom line? I think the messages are real clear.
- We need to take care of our own financial health and not hand over the reigns to some expert. We need to be proactive; we need to be preemptive.
- We also need to safeguard our physical and mental health. We need to protect and invest in our greatest assets — ourselves.
7 comments posted