Could it be that Steve Jobs, who learned that he had pancreatic cancer at an early stage, did not want to have surgery and turned to alternative medicine for 9 months, worsened the course of the disease and accelerated his death?
Although many people around him, especially his family and doctors, tried to persuade Jobs, why did he ignore all his possibilities and turn to alternative medicine?
It was actually a chance for him that his cancer was diagnosed early.
When Steve Jobs underwent a CT scan for possible kidney stones in 2003, doctors accidentally found a shadow on his pancreas. Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer called a neuroendocrine tumor. This type of cancer is quite aggressive compared to other types of pancreatic cancer and has a low survival rate.
Another feature of Steve Jobs’ cancer was that it had to be surgically removed before it metastasized and that it grew slowly. However, after learning about his cancer, Jobs refused to undergo surgery and turned to alternative medicine. Jobs tried vegan diet, fruit juice diet, acupuncture, herbal medicine, as well as treatments he found on the internet, and even consulted psychics.
How this process affected Jobs’ health is among the unknowns. However, it is quite surprising that Jobs chose the fruit juice diet and believed that this diet would have adverse effects on the cells of cancer patients, especially when it was learned by everyone that cancer patients should not consume sugar.
Jobs left his body unhealthy with his diets.
University of California Osher Center for Integrative Medicine Professor Donald Abrams stated that there is no difference between freshly squeezed fruit juice and cola. The secretion of sugar, which affects the insulin-like growth factor, actually creates inflammation, which causes cancer cell division.
While Abrams rarely recommended fruit juice consumption to cancer patients, he stated that dangerous insulin should not be produced. In addition to insulin, the body actually deprives healthy cells of necessary nutrients. Jobs’ controversial decisions include omitting an accepted fact, although there is no evidence about whether the juice diet causes metastasis of cancer cells in the pancreas and other organs.
Jobs decided to return to conventional treatment after 9 months.
Steve Jobs agreed to be treated with traditional medicine after 9 months. Jobs spent 100 thousand dollars to find the best treatment method for his treatment and had his DNA sequenced. Jobs, one of the few people in the world who had his genome sequenced, had surgery in 2004. While his tumor was successfully removed, he did not receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Jobs, whose cancer recurred in 2006, underwent a liver transplant in 2009. However, this did not enable Jobs to fully recover. Jobs, who quit his job a year and a half after his liver transplant, died at the age of 56 due to the recurrence of his pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor on October 5, 2011. At his request, Jobs was buried in an unnamed cemetery in Alta Messa Ant Park, the only non-sectarian cemetery in Palo Alto.
What did Jobs’ family and doctors say about this process?
Many experts suggested that Jobs would have lived longer if he had had surgery and chemotherapy when he was first diagnosed. Because this type of tumor was a type that could only be treated with surgery if diagnosed early.
“He refused to have surgery for nine months,” said Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson. “Later, when his health deteriorated, he regretted this decision.” He said that Jobs started talking about life after death towards the end. Isaacson said Jobs said, “Maybe it’s because I want to believe in life after death. They don’t all disappear at once when you die. “The wisdom you have accumulated somehow continues to live on,” he said.
Steve Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell, said that the reason why Jobs did not want to have surgery in the first place was that he did not feel ready for the idea of opening his body.
“Jobs’s belief in alternative medicine likely cost him his life,” said Barrie R. Cassileth, Chief of Integrative Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He had the only type of pancreatic cancer that is treatable and curable. “He actually committed suicide,” he said.
Did he deliberately hasten his death?
The fact that pancreatic cancer is one of the most insidious types of cancer and has a low chance of survival made everyone question why Steve Jobs made such a decision about his health.
Jobs was a person who had access to the best consultants in the world and had no financial obstacles. Like other cancer patients, Jobs could participate in experiments based on basic science and benefit from both conventional and alternative medicine.
One of the points that surprised everyone was that Jobs was meticulous, detail-oriented and obsessive, and even such a person was deceived by the charm of alternative medicine.
However, it is worth noting that some doctors also said that metastases may be present from the very beginning and may not be visible. This situation might not actually make a difference in the chances of survival even if surgery was performed early.
It is also very important at this point that not only scientists but also those in the health sector should make efforts to prevent people from turning to alternative medicine and dying for no reason while they have the chance to use it.
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