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October 26, 2004
Taking Charge Of Your Health
Interview
with Edward T. Creagan, M.D., author of the book, How
Not To Be My Patient
Mike
Carruthers:
It sounds cliche' to say, "As long as you have your
health" but too many of us it appears are not making our
health a priority.
Edward
Creagan, M.D.:
I
am one of the colleagues here at Mayo Clinic who was board certified in hospice
medicine and by definition patients in a hospice have twenty-four weeks of life
left. Oncologist Dr. Edward Creagan, author of the
book, How
Not To Be My Patient…And what I hear everyday
making rounds is regrets. What if, why did I smoke, why didn't I have a check
up, why didn't I have that physical abnormality looked at? Although
there is no way to guarantee good health Dr. Creagan says you can certainly stack
the odds in your favor. For example, we now know
that diet and lifestyle options and alternatives account for more than half of
all cancers. So if we don't smoke, if we don't drink, if we have an ideal body
weight, if we use sunscreen, if we follow a low fat diet we can decrease the risk
of cancer by almost forty percent. And of course
we all know that early detection of disease is so important. If
you're a woman at age forty you need a mammogram in conjunction with a physical
examination. If you're a gentleman at age fifty you need a screening colonoscopy.
Tomorrow how some people defy death and disease. I'm Mike Carruthers
and that's Something You Should Know.
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