Steve Jobs died early due to his belief in "alternative" medicine

[footfootfoot]

I believe in the

[monster]

My friend who had breast cancer also says she would not do chemo again. She is into non-convential medicine, but alongside traditional medicine as complimentary not alternative therapy. Chemo is harsh and many of its side effects are permanently debilitating. Death is also permanent, but when the chemo is "just in case there's metastasis we might have missed" I can see why people who have been through it once, say not again.

[DanaC]

I think there's a huge difference between someone choosing not to go through chemotherapy, and someone choosing to go entirely for 'alternative medicine'.

I think there's a place for alternative therapies as a compliment to treatment. If nothing else the placebo effect can be a powerful thing. I see no reason not to try and harness the power of the mind in the quest to get well. The problem is that in many cases 'alternative medicine' is in fact an 'alternative to' medicine.

What I find heartbreaking is the number of people who go straight for the alternative therapies, and then when that doesn't work (which obviously it wouldnt) it's too late for conventional treatments to work.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I think there's a huge difference between someone choosing not to go through chemotherapy, and someone choosing to go entirely for 'alternative medicine'.

Actually there is no difference. They are both conscious decisions made by the person who is facing death.

I think there's a place for alternative therapies as a compliment to treatment.

It is not a question of "compliment", and as in this case I would completely agree, it was a question of abandon mainstream science for alternative therapy, at least that is what I garnered from the previous discussion.

[DanaC]

I meant there's a difference in terms of impact, and vulnerability to exploitation.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I think there's a place for alternative therapies as a compliment to treatment.

"What a lovely treatment! It really ties the whole procedure together."

Like that kind of compliment? Or did you mean complement?
[/smartass]

[DanaC]

Ahahahah. Ahahahahaha.

*burp*

[Clodfobble]

A sappy relative happened to forward this 2005 speech by Steve Jobs in an email to my stepdaughter today.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. The doctor told me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die...

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy... I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

Obviously he's not fine now, and who knows what treatment options he pursued when the cancer came back 6 years later. But when presented with the opportunity to have it easily cured by surgery, he took it.

[classicman]

Yep - got a video from a relative today as well (weird) It was from a speech he gave at Stanford in 2005.

[Undertoad]

That's the timeline, he was diagnosed, went with alternative treatment for some unspecified amount of time, and then finally had surgery in 2004.

[classicman]

Found it! Starts at 10:12

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

That's the timeline, he was diagnosed, went with alternative treatment for some unspecified amount of time, and then finally had surgery in 2004.

*shrug* Perhaps so. His decisions, not yours. Someday people may try to say that "Undertoad died early because he ignored the risks of diabetes." You're not Steve Jobs and he's not you. (For which we're all grateful, because from what I've heard, that guy was a ruthless bastard. )

[Undertoad]

This goes mainstream on 60 Minutes this Sunday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20123269.shtml

"I've asked [Jobs why he didn't get an operation then] and he said, 'I didn't want my body to be opened...I didn't want to be violated in that way,'" Isaacson recalls. So he waited nine months, while his wife and others urged him to do it, before getting the operation, reveals Isaacson. Asked by Kroft how such an intelligent man could make such a seemingly stupid decision, Isaacson replies, "I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if you don't want something to exist, you can have magical thinking...we talked about this a lot," he tells Kroft. "He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it....I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner."

He was biopsied and had the simpler form that an operation would normally cure. He waited nine months and then had the operation. But by that time, it had spread, and the docs couldn't get it all.

[DanaC]

Trouble is, we're not always rational about stuff like this. Says the woman with a cigarette in her hand :p

The problem is that there are people and organisations who take advantage of that irrational instinct. Now, when that is to offer remedies and cures for arthritis, or help to get generally more healthy, or alleviate pain from any number of conditions, then I see no real problem. People suck it and see, and if it doesn't help, they can go down the traditional medical route. No great harm done, and quite possibly some benefit gained.

Advising a cancer sufferer to rid themselves of their tumour with the power of fruit or healing energy alone, is unacceptable. Not urging a cancer sufferer who goes to them for help without considering mainstream treatment first or alongside to seek further advice from their doctor, is unacceptable.

[Clodfobble]

He finally had the surgery and told his employees about it, but played down the seriousness of his condition. Isaacson says he was receiving cancer treatments in secret even though he was telling everyone he was cured.

Wow, how horrible. That speaks a lot to the shame he felt about the whole thing.