He had a liver transplant
did steve jobs waste precious time pursuing quack remedies?
- Thread starter Free Thinker
- Start date
He had a liver transplant
It's a combination of genetics and environment, with the former being more important imo. I was discussing it with my doctor and his theory was that a certain segment of the population (around 20%) are just not genetically predisposed to cancer and can basically drink, smoke etc with little effect. My great-grandfather drank and smoked regularly and lived well into his 90s at a time when avg. life expectancy was much lower than it is now.
Another segment of the population is genetically predisposed to cancer no matter how healthy they are. Think of all the young children who are diagnosed.
Everyone else is somewhere in between. The only thing you can do is to decide where on the vice-health spectrum provides you the most enjoyment relative to your fear of dieing young. If you live a healthy life it's really out of your hands and you shouldn't worry about it. (hell, maybe stress is a contributing factor)
the author of the article not a surgeon.
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health...ning/50686266/1
you mixed up two articles but hey what's the difference for a free thinker.
Very sensible stuff joneog, thanks.
Here's some more info on the subject:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/health/conditions/pancreatic-cancer-steve-jobs/index.html
A little over a year ago, my dog started developing a rapidly growing tumor on his leg. While trying to determine if we could surgically remove it, an x-ray was taken and it was determined that in addition to the external tumor, he also had osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in the same leg, which is quite rare. We soon came to find out that even though we caught it early and his chest x-rays were clear, osteosarcoma always spreads to the lungs. We saw an oncologist vet and he basically said if you do nothing, he will die within 3 months. If you just amputate he will live 4.5-5.5 months. If you amputate and start chemo, he may live about 12 months.
Since either of the two cancers is reason enough to amputate, that's what we did. Since we couldn't afford upwards of $5-10k for chemo and didn't see the point as we were definitively told there is no cure, we didn't pursue any conventional treatment. Instead we read every resource we could on natural cures. He ate a very strict diet and was taking many supplements and other things. 4 months later, we took some chest x-rays and the cancer had spread to his lungs. After a few weeks of him losing his strength, not being able to stand on his own, frequent coughing, and a general loss of will to live, we put him to sleep. That was 5 months after diagnosis. After all we did, he lived just the average.
Alternative cures can certainly perpetuate a false sense of hope. I never expected a miracle, but I certainly thought he could live beyond the average. The simple fact is that our bodies break down and we really don't have the definitive answers as to how to prolong it. Otherwise we would be able to explain how people who drink and smoke their whole lives live to be 90 and those with healthy lifestyles develop disease.
Since either of the two cancers is reason enough to amputate, that's what we did. Since we couldn't afford upwards of $5-10k for chemo and didn't see the point as we were definitively told there is no cure, we didn't pursue any conventional treatment. Instead we read every resource we could on natural cures. He ate a very strict diet and was taking many supplements and other things. 4 months later, we took some chest x-rays and the cancer had spread to his lungs. After a few weeks of him losing his strength, not being able to stand on his own, frequent coughing, and a general loss of will to live, we put him to sleep. That was 5 months after diagnosis. After all we did, he lived just the average.
Alternative cures can certainly perpetuate a false sense of hope. I never expected a miracle, but I certainly thought he could live beyond the average. The simple fact is that our bodies break down and we really don't have the definitive answers as to how to prolong it. Otherwise we would be able to explain how people who drink and smoke their whole lives live to be 90 and those with healthy lifestyles develop disease.
the guy that wrote the Steve Jobs' biography will be on 60 minutes sunday talking about his alternative treatment decision. it looks like in the end steve regretted that decision.
Quote from baro-san:
You don't really sound like a "free thinker" ...Doctors are quacks too (medicine is not yet a real science, as weather forecast isn't either), their competence is on a bell curve, a surgeon's article is usually biased toward surgery, all medical cancer treatments weaken (read destroy) health and reduce the quality of life, 10 years or 8 years of survival is about the same and will vary from one individual to another, etc..
You or I second guessing Steve Jobs is ridiculous.
Let Steve rest in peace, please!
+1
There are plenty of quacks and and snake oil treatments out there, but mainstream medicine is equally bad. For example, the standard nutrition advice (saturated fat is bad, it's okay to eat processed crap as long as it's "low fat," etc.) has been a disaster. We've been following that for 20-30 years and have more obesity and eating-related health problems than ever. Ancel Keys' work on this should've been discredited decades ago. Instead, we have idiots like Michelle Obama trying to force it further down our throats.
This has an interesting take on cancer and one doctor's struggle to have his treatment go mainstream:
http://www.burzynskimovie.com/
Speaking of character:
"The Associated Press reported that Jobs, an eternal competitor, was reportedly furious after Google introduced its Android operating system, calling it a stolen product. âI will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Appleâs $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,â he reportedly said. âIâm going to destroy Android. Iâm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.â"
Well, here is another quote:
"We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
Triumph of the Nerds (1996)