By now most people will have read all manner of eulogies about the co-founder of Apple, but you’ve probably haven’t read anything like this ridiculous editorial. Natural health nuts all around the world who decry conventional, evidence-based medicine and claim that cancer can be cured simply using vitamins and health supplements are pointing to Jobs’ death as proof that chemotherapy and radiotherapy doesn’t work. The article also goes on to a weird tangent on how Jobs was a once in a lifetime creative talent who was sadly abused by the capitalistic forces of society.
The irony of this particular editorial is that Jobs seemed to actually favor alternative health remedies, for the all good it did him. As his bio on Wikipedia makes clear, Jobs is pretty much the living embodiment of the counterculture, pot-smoking, hippie demography. So much so that he saved money from his first job to go on a pilgrimage to India and came back as a Buddhist with a shaved head. In short, he’s exactly the type of person who would read a website like Natural News and be skeptical of evidence-based medicine. According to this Fortune article from 2008, when Jobs first learned of his cancer, he resisted treating it with conventional methods and chose instead to go on a special diet and explored alternative treatments.
It was only nine months after his cancer was first diagnosed, following pressure from his company staff and investors worried about his health and after learning that his tumor had grown despite the alternative medicine he was using, that Jobs agreed to undergo the surgical procedure his doctors had recommended. At that time the surgery was considered a complete success but even back in 2008, it was pointed out that by delaying the procedure for so long, Jobs had dramatically increased his chances of his cancer recurring. It is arguable that things might be different today if Jobs had chosen to heed his doctors advice immediately.
On a personal note, I knew a colleague while working in the Solomon Islands who was diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Being a Johor native, he underwent treatment in Singapore but was eager to come back to work. A short time after he arrived back in the Solomon Islands, some symptoms recurred. Instead of flying back to Malaysia immediately, he listened to some of the local people and decided to have a local traditional medicine man treat him in a remote village. Most of the staff of the company opposed this as we were worried about him and it was difficult to stay in contact with him. According to his account, the treatment consisted of various oils and using hands to press the fluid out of his developing tumor. He stayed at the village for more than six months. Eventually, his condition deteriorated until he was forced to fly back and he was immediately hospitalized in Singapore. He died less than two months later. I remember his case keenly because he was the exact same age as me and died in his late twenties.