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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
@Matt Heather Gilbert actually, that last comment wasn’t in response to your comment. I respectfully disagree that this post is in any way offensive to the Jobs’ family. If you think otherwise, of course that is your prerogative.
I have Cancer, CLL chronic leukemia to be exact. In my case, chemo does nothing long term, just knocks it out so it comes back stronger. I have let my husband know that I will never do that sort of treatment.
HOWEVER I have had loved ones and friends that DID do both treatments. They asked my advice, I gave it, I was ignored. I never tell someone what to do, just offer another way to heal. I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing that pressure from dr and family and pure fear is what drives most folks into these ‘therapies’.
You can lead a horse to the truth but you can’t make him believe it.
deb
I don’t know what I would do but I do know my mom went through both about 19 years ago for breast and ovarian cancer and she is still with me today. They did take a toll on her body at the time but I am thankful that they worked for her.
http://www.burzynskiclinic.com/ I watched a documentary on this doctor. It was very interesting. He does have alternative treatments for cancer that have worked. He is also a published researcher. The medical community wants to squelch him because a “cure” for cancer is not profitable for Big Pahrma. He’s here in the Houston area.
Would like to hear of alternative resources you would consider.
What do you do when the natural treatments don’t work? I just got the call that my mom was wheeled into surgery a few minutes ago. She has a very aggressive breast cancer and even though she did the natural treatments (vit. C, laetrile, etc.) and thought they had done the job, the cancer seems to not even have been slowed down. She felt like she didn’t have another option than chemo and mastectomy, because it had spread very quickly to both skin and lymph nodes, and we just pray it hasn’t gone anywhere else.
This is just a crying shame, because she finally changed to WAPF eating just before her first diagnosis. That’s after a lifetime of eating junk and really not realizing how damaging it was.
I know that if I had cancer I would honestly rather die than go through what she is experiencing. No chemo for me. 🙁 I have only been eating well for 7 years, so I’m worried that it’s not going to be enough to keep cancer away from me.
Very discouraged today …
I have been in holistic health care for 23 years. I have always said “Of course, no one actually knows until they are in the moment, but I don’t think I would ever choose conventional cancer treatments.” ~~Well, on 7/29 an abnormal mammogram was confirmed by biopsy 8/9 & on9/20 I had a mastectomy. Yesterday I got a call that the Tumor Board (yes) that reviews all surgical cases, found a questionable margin. I was told to come in immediately. So, being “in it” I found myself open to standard protocol, if that would give me the best chance. Not because I am afraid of dying, but because I love life. ~~I nursed my fiance through chemo & radiation unto death in ’07, from a much more advanced & invasive cancer than mine, so I know first hand what it “really” is.~~At this point, the recommendation is for pretty aggressive radiation, no chemo (yay!!). I am massively beefing up on my already large nutrient profile (food & supplements) & am expecting to make it through this. ~~No one knows until they are there…
Thanks for sharing this – I posted a comment earlier and shared that I am going through the same thing. My Tumor Board meeting was this morning. It sounds like you and I share the love of the natural, but life comes at us and we have to take the best choice for full recovery. Good luck. I am already looking forward to what natural approaches I can take after radiation to heal my body. Good luck to you.
No. I would not choose chemo. I would try everything else first. Nutrition can reverse cancer most timess. Have you heard of http://www.burzynskimovie.com/. Well worth checking out!!
I wonder how pervasive it is that you cannot refuse the standard treatment for your child, as Megan describes. I alluded to it in my post above, and maybe it bears repeating that a huge concern is our diminishing right to choose the therapy we want. I’ve been reading about health freedom and how our ability to make informed choices is being stripped away. For example, Dr. Mercola has done a series of posts on cancer and the freedom, or lack thereof, in selecting the approaches that make the most sense to us. (See his articles The Great Cancer Hoax I and II, etc.) Another good resource is the National Health Freedom Coalition (http://www.nationalhealthfreedom.org). There’s a parallel between the efforts to deny our choice of food and our choice of medical treatment. The mega corporations have merged to the degree that the parent companies of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and foods are one and the same. And the revolving door between these and govt agencies that set and enforce policy, combined with a system that forces doctors to present only the mainstream “standard of care” lest they lose their license, is extremely worrisome. Adding the threat of having a child taken away (as discussed by Mercola, NHFC and others) is deplorable. We’d better start demanding our right to make choices and to have access to information and alternatives that are increasingly being suppressed.
I admire your courage to share the truth. We are of the same mind, but I often lack the courage you globally display through your website. Thank you.