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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
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There are quite a few specific natural methods of fighting cancer. I only know about a few of them people have tried and it worked for them. Some of these methods can be found at this blog:
Hi Sarah, my life is dedicated to cancer research – i work in alternative healing with heavy emphasis on alkaline diet, oxygenation, mental/emotional state prior to diagnosis, Far Infrared, and THC/CBD’s (hemp oil) that are proven to kill cancer. First, it was not too soon to discuss this subject and whoever thinks otherwise needs a mental check up. Cancer can be diagnosed on any given day and does not politely consider announcing its arrival or discussion, and the cancer numbers are climbing dramatically and consistently. Chemo and radiation may well be the choice of many in shock and fear, but many will die due to the side effects, whilst few actually survive intact. The better question to ask, is what caused the cancer in the first place and address that source! It’s common sense! Poisoning the cancer cells and cutting them out does NOT destroy or prevent the source from continuing to manifest the cancer.
This post made me think about what a HUGE divide exists between SCIENCE–bonafide hypothesis-driven/proven science–[cancer research, oncology] and snake oil salesmen. It’s akin to saying: “I’ve dedicated my life to building model airplanes and now, everyone, load your loved ones onto this 747 and I’m going to fly you to Europe”. Think about it! Most Cancer survival rates have increased each successive year based on Science-based treatments. If you are worried about Cancer rates, look to sources in the environment and chemicals in your diet. Don’t look to mood rings for diagnosing and don’t look to a snake oil for the cure!
‘Alive and Well’ by Dr. Binzel – one doctor’s fight against the FDA This is one doctor’s sincere account of the extent that the FDA went to, in order to dicredit him. As you may guess, his treatment for cancer was not through drugs. Rather it was a return to a holistic way of eating, and through consuming vitamin B17 (laetrile). In the book he cites case after case of people who returned to good health after changing their eating habits.
I have read some, but not all of this thread. What I have read suggests that we all bring mixed responses to this ever-widening topic. But let me say this. People who have read widely on cancer treatment would know too, of the work of Linus Pauling who advocated large doses of intravenous vitamin C to combat cancer. It was so much cheaper than chemotherapy, and, I understand, it worked and is working, today.
Like many on this site, I too have witnessed the horrors of chemo, and there is no one person who could convince me, that taking a person’s body to the brink of death, is a way to cure cancer.
Someone mentioned nutrition. I believe that this is where cancer has its origins. It doesn’t take a Rhodes’ scholar to work out that additives in food are hardly health giving.
As a teacher I ask my students if they’d be happy to eat a cake that had been left out for a week (covered of course!). Shock horror, they wouldn’t! And yet, when I point out to them that many foods that they do eat languish on shelves for months and months, they see that as different. Advertisers do an ace job on children through advertising!
A grandparent at school had colon cancer and was offerred chemotherapy which he refused. He changed his diet, his lifestyle, he exercised, and he cut out all processed foods. Within six months he was pronounced cancer free. I don’t suggest that this would always work, but surely sound nutrition should be our bedfellow!
This is my first visit to this site. I was really enjoying it until I read this thread. So much ugliness around such a painful subject if you’ve been down that road. I have.
I know I can’t say for sure what I would do unless I were in that situation. My husband died of cancer at the age of 46. He was terminal upon diagnosis 20 months earlier, despite having been ridiculously healthy and fit until just a few months before we learned what was causing his weight loss and abdominal pain.
The original prognosis was dead in 3 months – the normal progression for what he had (unknown primary poorly differentiated, multiple liver metastases). Chemo, the only option, did not save him. But it gave him an extra 17 months of very precious life and we both treasured every minute of it. Much of it was very, very good.
Yes, chemo can be horrible though he tolerated it with amazing fortitude and grace. Could alternative treatments have worked in time? I will never know, but I could find no documented cases of recovery or increased survival for people with similar diagnoses using alternative therapies. Believe me, I looked and looked. What treatment to follow is a highly personal decision and we made the best one we could in a terrible situation.
My heart goes out to those of you who have been down the same road. And a word directly to those medical/oncology professionals who have commented: my husband’s doctors and nurses were simply outstanding. They were dedicated to sustaining his life and I will always appreciate their efforts as I appreciate yours.
I can tell you that when you’re called into the doctor’s back office to privately be told that your child has a brain tumor, that refusing conventional treatment is just not that easy…
(And then there is also the fact that they will take you to court for state custody of your minor child if you refuse conventional treatment…)
Breast cancer runs heavily in my family. I have long said that I would have surgery, but refuse the rest of the toxic conventional treatments, if it happens ot me… and yet, here I find myself with a son going through conventional treatments for an aggressive form of brain cancer. None of it is easy when you or your child actually receive a cancer diagnosis…
p.s. Radiation and chemotherapy offer a “remission”. The important thing to remember about remissions is that the first remission will be the longest. After that, each successive remission will be shorter in length. Most folks are not aware of this. Specialists hope for a long first remission because they are aware of the diminishing returns thereafter. Succeeding remissions never outlast the initial remission time.
Sarah,
I’m not sure about skipping radiation or chemotherapy is either a panacea for getting cured or a direct relation to dying sooner– given that the patient has good nutrition and does not fall victim to medical errors. There are so many causal links to life/death. There was an interesting article in the New York Times, not long ago, that spoke about the large number of radiation machines that are incorrectly calibrated and the large percentage of human error dialing in the actual radiation dosages. However, I’m not sure if these two factors equate to a blanket statement about radiation hastening death from cancer. I would urge folks to do research through the Mayo Clinic or M.D. Anderson and not to rush off to Mexico for a “Steve McQueen”-type treatment. Yes, the human body and spirit are amazing; but, blanket statements by a home economist (no rudeness intended) may lead folks walking away from chemotherapy and radiation treatments that may help stave off death. Most health professionals and family around Steve Jobs, that witnessed his battle with cancer first hand, unquestionably felt that his foolhardy diet and limit of calories hastened his death considerably (much was written about it). Naomi Judd penned a book about optimism and battling cancer and it has been well reviewed (as an aside). I love your articles, website and videos on nutrition; but, I believe that oncologists are better educated to inform cancer patients. Nutrition is paramount with living; but, it is not a single answer to battling cancer alone. The only tip that I might humbly offer was from a friend whose daughter battled stage IV skin cancer for twelve miraculous years and that was to check the internet weekly by searching Google for their specific type of cancer and “new treatments/drug trials” and then by contacting the folks running the treatments and trials directly. A doctor is many things, but what he is not is a person devoted to staying abreast on new treatments/drug trials. It simply requires too much time. A patient or their family must be their own advocate and it begins with Google and their vigilant searches of the World and cutting edge drug trials & treatments. You would be surprised at how many of the decision makers that are the gate keepers to the treatments/trials can be accessed through a simple phone call. Yes, there may be only a 10% chance of survival; but, as my friend’s Mom always said: “There’s no reason that my daughter can’t be part of that 10% is there?” !
My husband chose to have radiation (“to shrink the growth”), then surgery, and died anyway of colon cancer, which had spread to his liver. We vehemently opposed him having chemo and were very much pressured by his oncologist, as well as some family members (he died 5 months after having surgery). The radiation really did a number on him. Unfortunately, I did research a little too late and discovered that generally, doctors recommend 3 things: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Research showed that all three things make the cancer either come back or cause cancer elsewhere. Research also indicated that given enough time, the cancer does come back. Of all the people you know who had cancer and had surgery, radiation or chemo, what’s the longest someone has lived, assuming that they are still living?
‘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.’
What an ignorant article. Sorry. Unless you are in the medical field or have a truly thorough understanding of genetics/cancer/subject matter you are writing about, then do not make bold statements such as the one above.
As an oncology nurse practitioner, while holistic approaches are welcomed cautiously as an adjunct to treatment, they cannot ‘resolve’ the cancer. The words ‘cure’ are rarely used in oncology because there really is no cure for most cancers. But you try telling someone who suffers from testicular cancer to use holistic medication (there is a 90% cure rate for testicular cancer with surgery and chemo) or else a child with leukemia (high cure rate as well).
We offer people who have incurable cancers the option of chemotherapy and radiation because it can prolong their life, and many people would like to do so to see their children grow up. However some of the side effects are just awful, I agree. But most patients I talk to before they die or stop treatment say that they would not do it differently. But this is a personal choice that EVERYONE makes.
And lastly, Steve Jobs had PANCREATIC CANCER, no holistic medicine would ever save him. It was a neuroendocrine tumor, and I believe his type was a functioning secreting tumor which causes a lot of symptoms in a person.
I could go on but I will stop now…