Customer Reviews

How Not to Be My Patient: A Physician's Secrets for Staying Healthy and Surviving Any Diagnosis

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm an author, educator and media personality, I was blown away by Dr. Creagan and Wendel's new book, How Not to Be My Patient. As the veterinarian for ABC TV's Good Morning America, Knight Ridder Newspapers pet columnist, nationally syndicated talk radio host, and author of several books including The Healing Power of Pets, I'm always looking for an edge when it comes to my health, and the health of those I love.

Most books about healthy living or beating back physical adversity are either too anecdotal for my liking, or written in such a way as to be boring or too hard to follow. Not this book! From the very first pages, I found How Not to Be My Patient research-based but easy to understand, comprehensive without being overwhelming, fun to read rather than drudgery. Plus the book is packed full of quick facts, reference lists, and vividly written stories that make the tactics for healthy living come alive!

This year, I'm giving everyone on my Christmas list this book. How Not to Be My Patient promises to help each of them live a happier, healthier, fuller life.

Two paws way up, two thumbs way up for this book!

How NOT to Be My Patient is a book that incorporates the rare combination of being easy to read, full of useful common sense information, and not preachy.
As a health professional, I found the information useful to me personally, and I have recommended it to my colleagues and family.

I think Dr. Creagan did a masterful job of making sense out of the intimidating world of medicine for the average person. I applaud his book! Everyone should own it!

This is an excellent book by an excellent doctor. Although it could use a more recent edition since it came out in 2003, it is still a great book. It's great for reference and although the book does not cover everything I wouldn't expect it to cover everything since Doctor Creagan is a cancer specialist, where he does a fabulous service to his patients. Would recommend it to anyone.

Dr. Creagan provides medicine to treat the ills of the healthcare system...with sweet spoonfuls of humor and humility. He offers a compelling case for health promotion and patient empowerment. Grooming patients to become more informed consumers of healthcare is the key solution to our crisis of soaring healthcare costs and the erosion of the relationship between doctor and patient. Dr. Creagan's uses "insider information" and does the job well.

Dr. Creagan approaches health with humor and simple lifestyle suggestions. This book is great for anyone struggling with a disease or for anyone who wants to prevent acquiring one. He states many simple lifestyle choices that can do more for us than a doctor or any prescription could. [...] Filed with logic, humor, and common sense reminders, this book is very relaxing to read because you know you are filling your mind with healthy ideas.

Thank you, the book arrived in good time and in good shape. We hope to find the information therein helpful.

Dr. Creagan makes no bones about it; he'd love to put himself out of a job. This book is a heartfelt and very personal expression of the wisdom and humility a great doctor develops after decades treating the sickest and often the most inspiring people that any physician can work with. A renowned oncologist, treating cancer victims at the Mayo Clinic for decades, Dr Creagan pleads with the reader, in fact with our whole culture, to do what the health care system cannot - to take charge of our own health.

As a fellow physician, also working within a struggling health care system while attempting to battle the daily hype, medical nonsense and shameless marketing that plagues modern medical information, I was thrilled to read Dr Creagan's incisive, dead-on description of these problems and his straightforward, common-sense advice to empower the individual patient in their lifelong quest to never need his services.

He will give you practical advice on how to filter the good from the garbage in the media and on the Internet, and how to best use "all ten minutes" of the modern doctor visit wisely. He will also share his priceless knowledge on what separates the cancer survivors from those who don't make it. He's not selling miracles, just honest and verifiable observations about what personal qualities are tied to the best chances of beating the big `C.'

Some of the nutrition and dietary advice put forward in this book has since been called into question as the result of more recent studies. This is not a fault of the book as the advice was completely up to date at the time it was written. It seems that no area of study does more back-pedaling than that of medicine and health, but that is the nature of the beast - we are always making our best informed guesses. It simply means that the reader of this or any other health book should take care to consult the latest information before embarking on a treatment or lifestyle course of action.
- John Corso, MD author of: Stupid Reasons People Die, An Ingenious Plot for Defusing Deadly Diseases

This was a great book for both the cancer patient as well as the family. Sound advice for healthy living with diet, excercise and mental health attention. Creagan continuously promotes an educated patient. Having read the book during a family member's own struggle with cancer, Creagan shows how the patient can be thier own "chairman of the board" with a circle of trusted advisors. The physician is just one of these advisors and plays the role of 'quarterback' with an empowered and educated patient calling the plays. Creagan's insertion of "humanism' in medicine clearly stands out! I highly recommend this book to those wanting to just clean up their lifestyle as well as those recently diagnosed with cancer.

This 300 page book can be summarized in one phrase: live well by exercising, eating healthily, not smoking, drinking very moderately, maintaining a positive attitude, and sleeping plenty. There is nothing wrong with this message. Yet, it does not take 300 verbose pages to convey it. But, the devil is in the detail. And, under close scrutiny much of his advice is either questionable or mediocre.

When it comes to nutrition, Creagan advocates a near-vegetarian diet with very little fat. Many people can probably lead healthy lives that way. But, many can't. We are not all the same as exposed in the interesting The Metabolic Typing Diet: Customize Your Diet to Your Own Unique Body Chemistry or Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight books. And, our nutritive needs may be different depending on our type. Also, avoiding fats raises challenges because many vitamins are fat soluble. If you nearly eliminate fat from your diet you will likely become deficient in such vitamins. Given this, his advice to wean yourself of low fat milk to eventually drink only skim milk is not sound. He recommends avoiding oils including olive oil. But such fats are really healthy. By the same token, if you make such draconian efforts to eliminate fat from your diet as he suggests you are likely to fall short of proteins as proteins and fats are most often combined within the same foods. Finally, Creagan is against the majority of vitamin supplements as he considers that we get all the nutrients we need from food. That's a questionable statement especially when combined with his nutrition recommendation that may cause specified vitamin deficiencies.

When it comes to cancer screening, Creagan relies on the American Cancer Society (ACS) that is an advocate for cancer screening early and often without consideration for effectiveness of such screening. Instead, he should have relied on the more scientific based U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The PSA test for prostate cancer screening is an egregious example. The associated false positive rate approaches 90% which ultimately leads many patients to have their prostate surgically removed and suffer incontinence, impotence, and depression for the remainder of their lives. Meanwhile, many scientific studies have shown that treating prostate cancer does not extend life span. But, it certainly can affect quality of life. As expected the ACS recommends the PSA test yearly starting in middle age. The USPSTF does not recommend it at all. For a more balanced perspective on cancer screening, I recommend Should I Be Tested for Cancer?: Maybe Not and Here's Why and The Last Well Person: How to Stay Well Despite the Health-Care System. Also, on non surgical prostate cancer treatment here is a good book Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery.

When Creagan conveys "What Your Doctor Never Tells You" over 50 pages, I was expecting some substance. There was none as it covered assertive patient's communication skills that are plain common sense. If you want to know how to better manage your care I recommend the excellent How to Survive Your Doctor's Care. And, if you want to know what Creagan really did not tell you, I also recommend What Doctors Don't Tell You.