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The world lost a true visionary yesterday with the passing of Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple. I remember back in the late 80’s when I was a young computer programmer/designer fresh out of grad school using the (Apple) MacIntosh computer for the very first time.
The MacIntosh user interface was so intuitive and such a leap ahead of the predominant Microsoft DOS operating system (remember? type commands at the green screen prompt) that I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
This new and emerging user interface in the 1980s that is taken for granted today rocketed the task of computer design light years ahead and allowed the development of computer systems to at last be something users could be involved in and easily understand.
There is no doubt that Steve Jobs’ passing at 56 years old was premature. He had much more to contribute to the world and I for one feel the world has been cheated now that he is gone.
Pictures of him in his final days showed a frail, shockingly thin frame consistent with a person who had undergone chemotherapy treatments for cancer.
While every single detail of Mr. Jobs’ cancer treatments over the years are not publicly known, one can’t help but wonder if his chemotherapy and radiation treatments contributed to his demise.
Just a few weeks ago, Kara Kennedy, daughter of the late Senator Edward Kennedy died at age 51 from a heart attack. Her brother, Patrick Kennedy said that her many years of chemotherapy to treat lung cancer took a severe toll on her health and weakened her physically to the point where “her heart just gave out.”
Is Conventional Treatment for Cancer Worse Than the Disease?
It seems that chemotherapy/radiation treatments causing death rather than preserving life are becoming more common.
Radiation in particular ups the risk of heart problems in women undergoing conventional treatment for breast cancer. The May 2000 issue of The Lancet reported that women who had undergone radiation for breast cancer increased their odds of dying from other causes, usually heart related, by 21% compared with women who had not undergone radiation with the 20 year survival rate for breast cancer improving by only 1%.
Does that seem worth it to you? It sure doesn’t to me.
Chemotherapy is another conventional treatment for cancer that seems to hasten people’s death. The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death in the UK reported that its review of 600 cancer patients who died within 30 days of treatment revealed that over one quarter had in fact been killed by the chemo and not cancer.
The extreme toxicity of chemo treatments is what causes the rapid demise, usually infections such as the very serious neutropenic sepsis.
In the case of Mr. Jobs, this appears to be what happened. According to reports from multiple sources, he had received chemotherapy treatments in recent months at the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto California and his devastating physical deterioration from these treatments almost certainly contributed to his quick passing.
Would You Ever Use Chemo or Radiation to Treat Cancer?
If you received a cancer diagnosis, would you ever agree to chemotherapy or radiation treatments or would you explore nontoxic alternative therapies?
I, for one, would not consider conventional cancer treatment as such an approach to disease seems more than a little misguided. How can use of toxic chemicals and/or radiation possibly be beneficial when both of these treatments actually have been shown to cause cancer in the long run?
It seems that a more holistic approach to cancer would be wiser than the slash and burn approach of conventional cancer treatments.
In his article A Holistic Approach To Cancer, Dr. Tom Cowan MD writes:
“… the job of the doctor is to distinguish between the therapy and the illness. What I mean by that is if you get a splinter in your finger, and then your body makes pus to get the splinter out, is the pus the therapy or the disease? We know that pus indicates infection and the presence of microorganisms, and we learned in medical school that doctors should kill the pus. But I don’t think it is that far of a stretch to see that if you have a splinter in your finger, the pus is the therapy for the splinter. If you don’t take the splinter out, the pus will do it for you. If you mistakenly think that the pus is the disease and you destroy the pus, the splinter will stay and your body will attempt this process again. If you destroy the pus again, your body might repeat this process three or four more times. Then you have a chronic infection as the body keeps trying to remove the splinter. Eventually it will either succeed, or it will encapsulate the splinter, which is a tumor, a new growth. It is not a cancerous tumor but a benign cystic tumor of the splinter. The understanding that the pus is the therapy allows you to predict what is going to happen in the future.
Now think of this example. Joe Bloke is a smoker. In other words, he puts a bunch of splinters in his lungs every day. Twice a year Joe gets cough, fever, mucus–all to get the splinters out of his lungs. I prefer to say “cough, fever, mucus” rather than “bronchitis” because the word “bronchitis” separates you from the reality of the situation. His body is producing an inflammatory response–it is making a mucus-pus-fever response to cleanse his lungs of splinters. If Joe goes to a doctor who makes the mistake of thinking that the response is the problem, he will give drugs to stop the bronchitis–which is actually the medicine. So Joe will be left with the splinters. That scenario will happen twice a year for thirty years and then Joe has a big bag of splinters in his lungs, and we call that lung cancer.”
Holistic approaches to cancer help resolve whatever caused the cancer in the first place. Conventional chemo/radiation treat only the “pus” of the cancer as described by Dr. Cowan.
Stopping cancer symptoms by “killing” the cancer cells with chemo or radiation is not in any way a cure as Mr. Jobs tragically discovered in his long running quest to regain his health.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Source: Doctors Rely on Chemo Too Much
You want to know what has an even higher rate of death than using chemo and radiation? Cancer. That and idiot parents who deny treatment because of misguided ideals which end up with the death of a little one. Working in the Hematology/Ocology unit of a Children’s Hospital alongside the amazing doctors who work for years with each patient in creating treatment plans to be able to meet the needs of each individual patient opens your eyes to how NOT EASY it is to heal cancer. You want to know why chemo and radiation can be good? Because they are first used in amounts that do not cause cancer. Secondly, because the body is an amazing creation that tries to self heal. Cancer becomes ingrained in the body and in order to kill it, you have to almost kill the body as well. But the body rejuvenates and the cancer hopefully does not. It is an art and a science to try to kill the cancer without causing permanent harm. Advances are being made all the time and we will someday be able to move past chemo and radiation but it sure isn’t going to be by downing baking soda or smoking weed. Listen to your oncologists, and be skeptical of anyone who just takes their lifestyle feelings and tries to make it work for every situation. You just have no idea what you are talking about on this one. Stick to homemade toothpaste tricks.
I watched my mother be treated like a tumor. They were aggressively trying to kill the disease and ended up killing her. I watched surgery after surgery, treatment after treatment. Not one doctor was honest with us about her condition, and having never seen anyone die so slowly and painfully before we had false hope fed to us until the very end. I am happy that you believe these treatments work, but in my experience they do not. There was one point during her battle with cancer that she denied chemo and started eating healthy and taking herbal supplements. According to a PET scan she had, the tumors were shrinking. She was overjoyed as were we! But then she lost her financial aid and her medival insurance dropped her because of her diagnosis and she was left with what the hospital was willing to give her…morphine and comfort. I saw the strongest woman I knew, whittle away down to 80 lbs after she started chemo. I watched her throw up every 5 minutes and not be able to use her legs anymore. I cannot even explain the heartache my family has suffered at the hand of chemo and experimental medicine. They need to learn to kill the disease and NOT the person. There is a doctor in Indiana who has been jailed for his research and proven methods to cure cancer. You should look him up- His name is Cal Streeter. He cured his wife and daughter-in-law and I would consider that no small feat.
I have never met her, but I am so proud of this girl! Make sure you read all 5 parts.
My Cancer Adventure part 5
http://nurturing-naturally.com/2012/02/14/my-cancer-adventure-part-5/
What if your 1 and a half year old was diagnosed with Leukemia with a white blood cell count of over 800,0000 – with blood so thick he could be moments away from a stroke. What would you do? Would you take him home and try your hand
Oh goodness….I didn’t mean to post the prior comment – I erased it and wrote my experience and opinion down, which thanks to a faulty mouse is now gone. I give up. Jeesh! I wish I would have had the info I have today while I was pregnant with my son, so I could have (probably) prevented his cancer. I wish I would have known about Real food as medicine at the time of his diagnosis. So for that reason, I am grateful for this kind of post/information. Still, at that moment – we didn’t have time to go home and try anything else to see if it worked. My son wouldn’t have had the option to try other things and save chemotherapy as the last resort. Not in the condition he was in. So I don’t regret our decision to use chemotherapy – every day is a gift with our son – all I can do now is use what I know to strengthen him, detox his poor little system and prevent any future side effects or re-occurrences.
What a fascinating topic. I was first introduced to the concept of alternative treatments for cancer in the documentary Food Matters.
It is shameful to think that excellent therapies and healing treatments are being ignored or squashed by the scientific community because of money.
After having watched my youngest brother and sister go through chemotherapy for childhood leukemia and then working in pediatric cancer research for several years, I have seen the long term effects of the chemo and radiation.
I have to say that if someone in my family were to be given a cancer diagnosis we would have to carefully weigh all options, but would be more inclined to search out a alternative to the conventional “treatments”.
Cannabis cures cancer, ok once you’ve stopped laughing you need to watch “Run from the Cure” by Rick Simpson.
Cannabis isnt a dangerous drug, the Parmaceuticals are!! These legal drugs now kill nearly 38,000 Americans every single year!! There hasnt been a single death attibuted to Cannabis in the thousands of years we have been using it (aside ones that involve the law and some fast moving lead).
PEACE AND LOVE
Steve Jobs went for the holistic, alternative, non invasive route on his cancer for a long period before finally deciding to go medical.
So, frankly, we don’t know if the eventual use of chemo/radiation was beneficial or detrimental for him. The earlier history before he went to medical intervention must be accounted for.
We don’t know. I don’t know. You don’t know either. I think it is worth exploring alternatives, but to make a case based on Jobs is not really productive.
I would do anything to stay alive so I can raise my two little boys. I don’t like the idea if using chemicals to get better, and I avoid them as much as possible. I would look at the bigger picture and if chemotherapy had a higher success rate than I would likely incorporate it with other, alternative treatments. It isnt something I like the idea of but would be willing to do what it takes to stay alive. On the other hand, if I would only be using it too add months to my life (not cure it) than no, I wouldn’t do it. At that point it’s all about quality of life and I would just enjoy the time I had left with my sweet boys and husband.
Sarah,
On Friday I got the call that I have melanoma. I meet with the surgeon tomorrow. I remembered this post, and have spent the last couple of hours reading the comments and following people’s links. I have four little ones – age 7, 5, 3, and 9 weeks. I do not yet know what I will decide, or how advanced it is. Thanks for providing the forum for the discussion.
hi Sarah,
I saw this link on LinkedIn today. I think Steve did use alternative therapies…
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/10/alternative-medicine-killed-steve-jobs.html