December 2011
Volume 10 Issue 12

Comments on the "Why Did Steve Jobs Die?" Article

Have you sent this news to friends and family yet?

There is so much misinformation that needs to be corrected surrounding this major celebrity’s illness and death. I believe Jobs would have wanted the truth to be told. You can help spread this vital information by sending last month’s (November 2011) newsletter article to friends and family.

1) Steve Jobs’ cancer of the pancreas was caused by exposure to environmental chemicals while working in the electronics industry when he was a teenager and a young adult. Lead (Pb), used in soldering, is one possible culprit.

2) Jobs delayed his surgery for 9 months after the initial diagnosis. Because the cancer had metastasized, he was made to believe that he killed himself by forestalling recommended treatment. However, scientific analysis proves that his cancer had actually spread almost two decades before he was diagnosed in October of 2003.

3) His lifelong vegan diet probably prolonged his life. Yet, his doctors’ prejudice for meat eating and their ignorance about human protein needs, forced Jobs to violate his philosophical beliefs—he and his family were tricked into eating animals.

And much more…please read the entire article free.

 

Edited Comments from Readers about this Article:

I read with great interest your article. My husband, who was a vegetarian but not a vegan, died of pancreatic cancer at age 78 3/4. My husband was a watch and clock repairman for over 60 years. He worked with chemicals, which were used for cleaning watch and clock movements, and also with mercury pendulums. His doctor took 5 months for the diagnosis, and 2 1/2 months later he was gone. I appreciated the article very much; and having been a medical librarian doing research for physicians for a number of years, I believe it is very accurate. Loraine.

You should have heard me at a lunch gathering. A plant food diet came up and how it hurt Steve Jobs. I did my best to argue it based on what I learned from you. There was a scientist at the table too, who argued with me, but I held my own. And now I just forwarded her your newsletter. Cindy.

Your article made sense, and made me feel like I finally found the answer to what I was looking for. I felt a bit angered at some of the other analogies about Mr. Jobs’ cancer that did not make sense to me on other websites. I sought to find out how someone so health conscious could die of one of the worst cancers. I am tired of being lied to. Reliz.

I did see it, and it's one of the most amazing and thorough analyses I've ever seen on any subject, not just on Steve Jobs. I'd like to get the word out more about your assessment. Okay if we promote it on social media, Tweet it, etc.? Neal.

I've felt the backlash first hand. I've even doubted. I know Woz through TEDMED and even have eaten dinner with him and his wife Janet (ironically I was eating vegan then). Thanks! I missed the point that you were simply trying to mitigate the 9-month "guilt" phase. Ray.

I had to chuckle to myself when you wrote in your article about Steve's "rationality, genius, intuitiveness, and internal strength to stand up for what he knew to be right."...because that statement also could be referring to YOU! And that's a good thing! I love your genius and intuitiveness, and most importantly, your thoughtful and data-driven ability to stand up for what YOU know to be right. You, and your team of experts and advocates, continue to impress me and the world. Congratulations! Angela.

He died because he went to traditional medical doctors who saw him as a cash cow and used meds to kill him, instead of juicing him back to health with starches and grains as supplements. The Gerson Therapy would have been best. Think how much (money) a liver transplant made those doctors. Kristy.

Thanks so much for this. It’s what I suspected, but so logically explained in your article. Ellen.

Thank you for writing this piece and explaining cancer and its growth. Since nothing can stop the cancer, all the chemo and surgery, and other therapies cannot work and cause pain, suffering, and huge sums of money, why do we use them? Since early detection can't see it until it is too late, it seems quite hopeless. Vegan and raw or living food, diets don't work as well as yours does, because your diet eliminates the oils. I just got his biography and now that I have read this article, I will have a better frame of reference for reading it. Think Different. Dez and Kristy.

I read your article this morning, as I am certain millions of others have. You have done what no other person in media seems to have been able to capture about Steve Jobs: He was human. Jim.

What a tearjerker this story is! I am glad you could set the record straight for all who knew Steve Jobs. Now that he is on the other side, he now knows the truth, but so sad for his suffering with the guilt and second guessing himself. He was a sacrificial lamb for changing the world with the computer items he had to be around in the early days. Suzanna.

I hope that Job's family read your article and took it to heart. What a wonderful tribute to his memory. Sheila.

Thank you for writing the article! It was awesome. I am forwarding the link to your newsletter about Steve Jobs, as well as posting it on my facebook page. Hopefully, they will seek out your help. Congratulations again on an excellent job that I was thinking needed to be done. Judith.

The article about Steve Jobs and his diet is very helpful and reinforces/encourages my own belief and understanding regarding what we eat and the carcinogens we are exposed to. I have suspected, for some time now, the unhealthiness of isolated soy proteins in our food and I'm still not sure about soy (so I stay away from it). Whole foods are healthier. A couple of friends keep trying to get me to eat "real" protein, but I'm not having it. I may look skinny, but I'm [as] healthy [as I can be] and strong and am doing what I need to do in life. Elizabeth.

My understanding is that it is a myth that Steve Jobs was a vegan. In 2000, I was managing an RV company. One day, a customer came on the lot who worked at Apple. I mentioned something about Steve Jobs being a vegan and he said, "That's actually a myth. Steve loves chocolate milk and drinks almost a quart a day." In any case, I have always believed that the cancer was due to his over consumption of dairy, which is consistent with kidney stones as well. I am fairly certain that cancer does need certain conditions to proliferate. Not just exposure to carcinogens. I have sincere and deep respect and gratitude for your work but I think you have tried too hard not to notice the obvious; Steve Jobs did not always tell the truth. Cheryl

I enjoyed your Job's version. I hadn't realized that he had gross liver mets at the time of his initial cancer surgery. If so his tumor was incurable at the time of his diagnosis and his biographer should offer a public retraction. Can you contact him and ask him to consult experts in the field who would certainly agree. The idea that questionable jaundice 20 years earlier was due to the tumor is almost surely wrong. Only substantial tumors do this and the jaundice would always progress. The intermittent back and abdominal pain years before diagnosis is also unlikely due to the neoplasm. You make so many good points that it is a shame to spoil them by suppositions that are almost surely wrong. Jack, MD.

My "computer geek" son, who had a Whipple himself at a tender age, usually turns politely deaf ears (if not glazed eyes) to his mother's espousal of the starch-based diet. But when I forwarded to him your article on Jobs, whose book he has just read, this was his reply: VERY interesting article; especially about how Steve Jobs lived in guilt the last 8 years of his life because he thought he waited too long to get recommended surgery. Having the surgery earlier would not have made a difference. His vegan diet helped slow the disease which is why he was able to live with it for 30 years. Patty.

Thank you so much for your wonderful article about Steve Jobs' cancer, which I have just read. This was fascinating, heartwarming and very reassuring to me. I'm sure you know about Dr. Burzinski in Houston...if I had a cancer diagnosis that's where I'd go! Anna.

Your analysis is brilliant, I think. My only question is the carcinogenicity of lead, especially regarding your suggestion that it may have initiated pancreatic cancer through its mutagenicity. I just sent an abstract on this point. I like your back calculation to determine the initial insult. I don't know about the tool you used. We used to have to make such calculation by hand. Colin.

I searched the net for all the info I could find about why in the world a man who was supposedly a vegan would possibly get pancreatic cancer, because all I have learned in my quest for the TRUTH on nutrition goes against this. I knew there had to be a reason. I believe in the McDougall diet, and the Gerson Therapy. I always will. Lisa.

Thank you for the sensitive and informative newsletter article about Steve Jobs. Steve had been a kind of hero to me since the 80's, when I went back to college to study computer systems...back when the Internet was just somebody's pipe dream and computer networks still needed a mainframe. I never met him, but I so admired his intelligence and creativity. I really hated all the blame-gaming that went on after his tragically early death, and I deeply appreciate your excellent newsletter article. Cynthia.

This is the BEST newsletter EVER. The Steve Jobs article is so perfectly written, with insight, objectivity, and wisdom. It's not only factual, but beautifully written. It has heart and makes me feel sad that no one simply pointed out the truth to him to relieve his guilt and emotional pain.....Mr. McDougall - you are so amazing. THANK YOU for doing what you do. Please never stop doing it. Lisa.

Your last newsletter about Steve Jobs was very informative. I learned quite a bit, especially about cancer in the body, how it grows for many years, rather than springing on us overnight, which is the feeling when one gets a cancer diagnosis.  We are all exposed to so many substances and toxins throughout our lives. Is there a way to clear out carcinogenic toxins from the body? Even those from childhood exposure? Could Steve Jobs have addressed the toxins in his body at an earlier age and prevented the cancer? Susan.

Thank you for the superb article on Steve Jobs--it was absolutely outstanding!!! Not only was it extremely informative, but also every single issue was addressed. An incredible piece of work--thanks again! Mitzi, John and Stella.

Excellent newsletter - full of compassion and understanding. From your calculations, it would appear likely that Steve Jobs' vegan diet helped but it might have been even better if he adopted a low GI vegan diet. This would have reduced his cancer cells access to sugar, increased his doubling time even further and mean that he would be alive today. His cancer might even have regressed. Peter.

I read your article on Steve Jobs; it was very compelling. I think that we can prove that the McDougall diet will actually REDUCE cancer growth factors in the blood. I just analyzed data from my dad’s weight loss clinic, 114 patients, and this shows that high protein diets lead to an increase in IGF-1, which may be severely detrimental to cancer patients. Shalin, MD.

I really thought it was the most lucid explanation of how cancer grows that I have ever read. I have forwarded it to a lot of people. Also it was apparent that you had great empathy for him. Ola.

In your splendid November Newsletter article about Steve Jobs, you gave the impression that he was doomed from the day his cancer started. Is that because it was initiated by a carcinogen in his environment, and not by his diet or lifestyle? I remember a lady who appeared on your cable-television show years ago. She had cancer, which had started somewhere and metastasized. But, she had adopted your plant-based diet program and was seeing remission and (I think) shrinkage of her tumors. T.C. Campbell, in The China Study, relates his experiments on diet-induced cancers and how the tumors could be suspended or shrunk by changing the protein intake of the laboratory rats. Can a distinction be made between cancers, which respond to a change in lifestyle/diet and those, which are unstoppable by any means? Benny.

I read your article about Steve Jobs, it was a real eye-opener, that cancer can spend so much time growing in the body, but I have read this before in the medical literature. Your love and concern for people is contagious, God Bless you for all you do!!! Connie.

This article hits close to home for me, as my father, a longtime electronics engineer and hobbyist died at age 70 of pancreatic cancer. His Dr. recommended and performed a Whipple, which unfortunately just turned him into a zombie requiring 24 hour nursing care. Mercifully for us all, he did not last long in this state. On the plus side, he cured his angina/heart disease in the 80’s with the McDougall plan, avoiding an early chance at mental fog from surgical interventions, and probably held off his cancer for a while longer as well. I wonder about the correlation of pancreatic to low vitamin D, because he avoided the sun like a plague and was modest with supplements. FYI, here is a response back from your article from an (significantly overweight) Oncology Dr. my sister knows. “Calculation problem: Solid tumors do not grow linearly. In the beginning they double at a fairly consistent rate but then level off as the interior cells cannot get the same energy as the exterior (many interior cells even die) so suggesting that all of the cells of a 1 mm mass would be doubling (ie. have the same energy and ability to replicate) at the same rate is unsound. I'm sorry McDougall and Jobs consider butter and eggs morally wrong to eat. I have no problem with people eating what they choose and feel to be right for them. I bet if today he walked into a Comprehensive Cancer Center such as Dana Farber or Memorial Sloane Kettering with the jaundice he had in 1984 his cancer would have been diagnosed and he would be cured.” Peter.

I just read your article on Steve Jobs. It was a great read and reinforces what I have read on the topic, namely that cancer takes a very long time to develop once cellular damage occurs. Where my understanding gets a little fuzzy is over the concept that by the time the cancer cell mass gets large enough to detect it is already too late for the patient. I have read other articles of yours that state by the time cancer is detectable it has already gained the strength to metastasize. I am left with the idea that surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are of no use because, chances are, it has already spread to other places in the body...In the case of Steve Jobs, do you know for certain that having surgery 9 months earlier would not have prolonged his life? Roger.

Thank you for the article regarding the cause and history of Steve Jobs' death!! I read it through. Glad for the discussion on the flack he had gotten for his efforts in eating wisely. Barbara.

Just read your latest newsletter on Steve Jobs and it is an eye opener. I will be recommending some of my friends to read it. I will also make sure that my sister reads the article as she at times questions the whole food diet. Dinesh.

Excellent article: It went a long way to inform on the origin and progress of cancer. Jobs' story is all too typical. His doctors did not inform him of the history of his disease. My father died in 1999 after five months of treatment. His cancerous mass was 6.5 cm at the diagnosis. Your article does leave the impression that most people will live and die by luck rather than by effort. Jobs was a vegan and Wozniak eats the typical American diet. They had the same exposure to the same toxins, yet one lives and the other is deceased. In the land of opportunity there is too much opportunity to peddle misinformation and Steve Jobs was an example of the misinformed American who, by his own successes, thought he knew more than the people taking care of him. Again, the history of his disease might have had a leveling effect on his ego, but who could be sure. The day my father finished his final chemo' treatment he said, "I didn't think I would make it." A remark to which the attending nurse replied, "you weren't supposed to." You can add that story to your catalog of insensitive moments in the field of medicine. David.

Dr. McDougall’s Final Note: Several of the comments I received pointed out errors in the very first version of the article.  Fortunately, they affected none of the points of the article and were immediately corrected. Thank you for this help.

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