Sunday, January 29, 2012

Did Alternative Medicine Kill Steve Jobs Or Did It Extend His Life?

By Michael Pritsker


Discover what some experts say about the computer giant's decision to put off surgery and seek natural methods. Natural methods are also known as alternative medicine. An example of alternative medicine is chiropractic therapy, acupuncture, etc. You probably know his name. But, even if you don't, it's pretty much a guarantee that he has affected your life in some way almost every single day. His name is Steve Jobs. The company he started began out of a garage and is called Apple. They make iPhones, iPods, iTunes, iMacs, MacBooks, and more. You get the idea.

Whether you liked Steve Jobs you didn't, there are some things you just cannot deny. First of all, Steve Jobs is the storybook of the American dream. At birth, his parents gave him up for adoption to a middle-class family in California with the stipulation that he attend college. After just 1 year at Reed College, Steve Jobs dropped out and traveled to India to seek some form of enlightenment. After his return to America, Steve Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer Company. In the first year, they assembled computer boards in a home garage and brought them to local computer enthusiast group to try to sell them.

A little later after that time, they developed the Apple II computer. It was a great success and the company went public only four years later. In December 1980, Steve Jobs' net worth was estimated to pass the $200 million mark. He was only 25 years old at that time. After that, there were several ups and downs in his career. Steve Jobs was actually from Apple and then brought back to save it a decade later. And he did. These days, depending on the stock market, Apple is either the most valuable company in the world, or a close second.

So what does this all have to do with alternative medicine affecting Steve Jobs or extending his life? There is plenty to discuss. But, the first thing to understand is that Steve Jobs was no fool. He was a smart guy. He was not some guy with minimal intelligence who read some stuff about cancer therapy on the web and decided to risk his life doing alternative therapy. And he was not the type to get fooled by slick marketers selling a cure. On the contrary. Steve Jobs was a genius and a visionary. From what seems to be the case, he studied the research. He researched the pros versus the cons in similar situations. And he allegedly decided to put off surgery for pancreatic cancer for nine months in favor of other, more hollistic approaches.

According to the web page on MyHealthNewsDaily "After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2003, he allegedly delayed surgery to remove the tumor which was the recommended treatment. He delayed it for nine months. "During that interim period, he attempted to treat his cancer with alternative medicine, including a special diet, according to news reports.

"I believe that he must have really refocused his health practices [through changes in diet and exercise]," said Dr. Ashwin Mehta, an Assistant Professor and Medical Director of Integrative Medicine at the University of Miami's Sylvester Cancer Center. "To do as well as he did, he must have done a lot of things right. Therapies such as meditation acupuncture and exercise may be used in conjunction with standard cancer treatments in order to improve health and reduce the side effects, which can include fatigue, chronic pain and problems with sleep." "Could such a delay in treatment have worsened Jobs' prognosis, and ultimately hastened his death?" According to Dr. Maged Rizk, a gastroenterologist at Cleveland Clinic, "I don't think waiting nine months for surgery was a bad decision."

"The bottom line is that the mind is such a powerful thing that it's unreasonable not to use it as an ally in the course of standardized medical treatment," Mehta said. "I would never say to one of my patients, 'you don't need to continue with your radiation treatment or your chemotherapy, all you need to do is meditate and adopt healthy sleep habits, and start an exercise routine, and then you can cure yourself,'" Mehta said. "The reality is that's not the case." But, used the right way, integrative medicine may provide a meaningful impact on the health of a patient with cancer.

Jobs lived for 8 years after his diagnosis. Here's something very important to note about this story: The average life expectancy for someone with a metastatic neuroendocrine tumor is about two years, according to PCAN. (It remains unclear whether Jobs' cancer was metastatic when he was diagnosed.)




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