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Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
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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.
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Stress blog
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April 4, 2008
Reaching out helps others, and you
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
"You cannot give what you do not have." So began a sermon by a minister several weeks ago. He went on to say that if we do not have a musical skill, we cannot teach music to others. If we do not have an athletic gift, we cannot teach others how to golf, swim, or run. What the minister was really saying is that if we are unfocused, distracted, letting ourselves get overwhelmed with issues, we are hardly in a position to offer the hand of friendship and the voice of comfort to others.
We all recognize and acknowledge that yes, bad things do happen sometimes to wonderful people, and yes, there are tragedies for which we have no obvious explanation. But, if we are able to maintain a sense of physical, spiritual, and emotional resilience, we can deal with just about anything.
If we feel marginalized and without a support system, there certainly are avenues to improve this situation such as joining a faith community; becoming involved in civic or community activities; or simply picking up that phone and calling a friend, colleague, or neighbor. Most of us are reluctant to reach out for help — especially us men — and maybe that is why women outlive us by about ten years.
Having read a recent book on Buddhism, a recurrent theme from one of the writers was the notion of being "preemptive." This meant trying to anticipate some of the issues that might befall us and doing our best to deal with adversity. These sacred writings also emphasized that if our focus is "all about me" we are doomed to unhappiness and will try to fill that void with trinkets, things, awards, and "stuff." Somehow the gift of reaching out to someone to make their lives a little better also makes our lives a little better.
So, what have other members of the community learned from other belief systems in dealing with these difficult and thorny issues of disease, illness, and life's unfairness?
7 comments posted
July 19, 2009 7:38 a.m.
I was having the experience this evening. Some of the qualities that people must maintain about themselves are the most delicate. It is hard to face the persona alone, when the self images are upset. The strength of accord, doing the healing part of our existance, and lifting up the ego from the harm feels like pain. What is it that hurts so much...is the lack of connecting with the pain in concrete terms. As humans, we make mistakes, and it is easier to recognize when we see it in others that we'll want to help. It helps us to discover that we have made mistakes,too, and that it is not all hopeless. When people say, why do you reach out? It is because we are aware of the pain that hurting people feel. We can calm them, share in confidence that they are not alone, and make an escape route possible. I suggest having a modus operandus in mind to master falling out of falling apart.
- JodiShowz
March 26, 2009 7:49 a.m.
It true that by helping others we help ourselves. it has be said that life is like well we get what we put into the well. By hellping others we reap our reward in kind not from the same person but from others.
- mbuguah
May 4, 2008 12:25 a.m.
Helping others is indeed very healing because during the act of giving, you forget the "self" and all your troubles, preocccupations, fears, dreams suddenly disappear. I think our notion of self causes so much suffering to ourselves and others.
- Nilupama
April 13, 2008 5:03 p.m.
I suffer from multiple health problems. The major one is abdominal pain caused by nerves damage as an outcome of an unsuccessful surgical process. These are phantom pains and they have no actual pathological cause besides that damage. After many failed treatments I decided to find my own way in handling these pains. I tried self hypnosis with good results, yet short term ones. About six months ago I was going on a train, as usual, souring of my pains and all of a sudden there was a strong whistle by another passing by train. At that moment I noticed that the pain stopped completely for about 15 seconds. I was surprised by what happened and I decided I must find out how come that whistle could have stopped the pain. I was looking for information on the internet and found a lot of information on sound therapy. I ordered several CD's with all kinds of healing sounds & music, but none of them had this train whistle effect. Then one day I found a website with many healing sounds and I tried one for abdominal pain and surprisingly it had exactly the train whistle effect only it stopped the pain for a couple of hours. I think this is magic. I asked some people how can simple sounds create such an effect and they said that it relates to the sounds frequency and that at a certain frequency level it can create a neutralizing effect on a physical problem such as pain.
- Dana
April 10, 2008 11:25 a.m.
Volunteering is a rich way to reach out to help, meet and share with others. Unfortunately, there are so many needy causes that one has to learn to discriminate or find oneself in overload which increases your level of stress. Be honest with yourself. "... (L)earning to say NO is an important part of simplifying your way to a better, less stressful life." PROBLEM SOLVING: FIND SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR STRESSORS, MayoClinic.com "Tools for healthier lives." Otherwise, I agree with Alan.
- Roberta S.
April 9, 2008 4:31 p.m.
Our life experience itself teaches us that life is, in truth, complicated. Sometimes we are inclined tell and believe sentimental stories that oversimplify the world into polar opposite categories: good/bad, fair/unfair. There are plenty of messages all around that we are one purchase or experience away from the life we want--and we suffer from believing it. In truth, life experience seems to be a mixed bag, both good and bad; both fair and unfair. Reaching out to others is the other side of the coin of others reaching out to us. In the realm of making sense of the world, it is the human social connections that matter.
- Alan
April 8, 2008 9:20 p.m.
To underline the wisdom of Dr. Creagan's comments, a quote from His Holiness The Dalai Lama: "When you engage in fulfilling the needs of others, your own needs are fulfilled as a by-product" WOW! "Bodhicitta is the medicine which revives and gives life to every sentient being who even hears of it"
- jim zahradka
7 comments posted