Chapter 19
Apple founder Steve Jobs' magical thinking may have defined his business brilliance, but it might have been his downfall in his fight against cancer.
Jobs' cancer was discovered by chance during a CT scan in 2003 while looking for kidney stones. The doctors saw a shadow on his pancreas and after further tests, the news was not good. The upside was the form of pancreatic cancer from which Jobs suffered was one of the 5% or so that are slow growing and most likely cured.
Jobs refused surgery after diagnosis and for nine months after favoring instead a new diet regime, dietary supplements and other alternative treatments. In the end Steve Jobs, one of the smartest and richest men in the world died in October 2011 at the age of fifty-six from cancer.
I can recall on a few occasions during my journey when alternative treatments were also suggested.
Jobs' cancer was discovered by chance during a CT scan in 2003 while looking for kidney stones. The doctors saw a shadow on his pancreas and after further tests, the news was not good. The upside was the form of pancreatic cancer from which Jobs suffered was one of the 5% or so that are slow growing and most likely cured.
Jobs refused surgery after diagnosis and for nine months after favoring instead a new diet regime, dietary supplements and other alternative treatments. In the end Steve Jobs, one of the smartest and richest men in the world died in October 2011 at the age of fifty-six from cancer.
I can recall on a few occasions during my journey when alternative treatments were also suggested.
Sherry had told me that when her late husband Ron realized the traditional treatments were not going to work, he too also tried many natural supplements. Ron was told they would buy him time and would keep his cancer at bay. Some patients had even been completely cured by the exact same natural supplements, he was told.
I do get the concept of trying anything and everything when all else fails. You'll do anything to stay alive. But in the end these supplements are extremely costly and they don’t work.
Period.
Seriously, foregoing the traditional chemotherapy, radiation and surgery route is just nonsense. It has been suggested that Steve Jobs may have committed medical suicide by denying the traditional treatments until it was too late.
Do you actually believe that eating apricot seeds, mushrooms grown in the Himalayas, or cooking with an ancient spice from India will cure cancer? Or better still even prevent a cancer diagnosis altogether?
Do you actually believe that spending thousands of dollars to visit a clinic in Mexico will cure your cancer?
What about those people who believe cancer is too big a business to find a cure?
I do get the concept of trying anything and everything when all else fails. You'll do anything to stay alive. But in the end these supplements are extremely costly and they don’t work.
Period.
Seriously, foregoing the traditional chemotherapy, radiation and surgery route is just nonsense. It has been suggested that Steve Jobs may have committed medical suicide by denying the traditional treatments until it was too late.
Do you actually believe that eating apricot seeds, mushrooms grown in the Himalayas, or cooking with an ancient spice from India will cure cancer? Or better still even prevent a cancer diagnosis altogether?
Do you actually believe that spending thousands of dollars to visit a clinic in Mexico will cure your cancer?
What about those people who believe cancer is too big a business to find a cure?
There is more money to be made treating cancer than curing cancer. You will never convince me that finding the cure for cancer will never happen because there is too much money to be made treating cancer.
Every single person in the world has or will be affected by cancer at some point in their lifetime. They will either be diagnosed themselves, lose a child, spouse, parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, friend, teammate, boss...
I think you get the picture.
Have you ever been to a children’s cancer hospital and seen the misery and the suffering? Every single day hundreds of children around the world will die horrible deaths from cancer. Thousands of others will lose a parent to cancer.
This happens every fuck’n single day.
Yes, I agree that the big pharma drug companies are horribly corrupt. They are making billions in profits off the backs of cancer patients. Publicly traded insurance companies are equally as corrupt by denying costly treatments because it negatively affects the bottom line. Cancer is big business and the profit before patient mentality has taken over the complete system especially on Wall Street and in the good old U.S of A.
Greed, greed and even more greed, it is what it is.
Billions have been spent on research and billions more will be spent going forward. I have no doubt that someday all cancers will be cured. Major strides continue to be made in cancer immunotherapy. By using artificial stimulation of a patient's immune system to treat cancer and improving the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer.
I truly believe that a cure is on the horizon and I hope to see it in my lifetime.
Every single person in the world has or will be affected by cancer at some point in their lifetime. They will either be diagnosed themselves, lose a child, spouse, parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, friend, teammate, boss...
I think you get the picture.
Have you ever been to a children’s cancer hospital and seen the misery and the suffering? Every single day hundreds of children around the world will die horrible deaths from cancer. Thousands of others will lose a parent to cancer.
This happens every fuck’n single day.
Yes, I agree that the big pharma drug companies are horribly corrupt. They are making billions in profits off the backs of cancer patients. Publicly traded insurance companies are equally as corrupt by denying costly treatments because it negatively affects the bottom line. Cancer is big business and the profit before patient mentality has taken over the complete system especially on Wall Street and in the good old U.S of A.
Greed, greed and even more greed, it is what it is.
Billions have been spent on research and billions more will be spent going forward. I have no doubt that someday all cancers will be cured. Major strides continue to be made in cancer immunotherapy. By using artificial stimulation of a patient's immune system to treat cancer and improving the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer.
I truly believe that a cure is on the horizon and I hope to see it in my lifetime.