Sure, but toward the end he decided to move away from potentially helpful medical treatments and toward junk science.
Also, this guy is not an oncologist, advocates for a vegan diet that is extremely high in carbs (and fiber, granted), and is thus not exactly a disinterested party presenting good scientific research.
An operation or anything else may not have saved Steve Jobs. But doing nothing and hoping it goes away definitely didn't.
The government and medical establishment has watched as cancer rates have risen over the last few generations. They're getting better at treating the things yes, as they help us get more over it.
Take mammograms for example. Some European countries have stopped using them all together because even the US admits it raises the likelihood of getting breast cancer. But the US medical system will tell you it's worth increasing your chances of breast cancer from mammograms, because they help you catch breast cancer you may have gotten in other ways earlier, thus making it more treatable.
Not a bet I would take personally. But women are rarely told that. Every women I've told that to is shocked.
So far as I can tell this is simply not true. There was a report made in Switzerland that suggested mammograms were ineffective, but that report appears to have been flawed and its recommendations were never implemented. Swiss doctors still recommend mammograms for women over 40.
The point here, though, is that even if mammography were ineffective at identifying cancer or had large false positive rates - which no reputable medical body has suggested is the case - medical and surgical intervention would be the proper treatment, because they work and are effective for those forms of cancer.
There is also simply no evidence that Western medicine is causing more cancer. I would believe that there are diets that can decrease the likelihood of it, but there is also not evidence nor any known mechanism by which a diet can cure cancer once it exists.
> The McDougall Program is a transformative and life-saving 12-day online medical program designed by Dr. McDougall. For over 35 years, this program has been helping individuals reverse chronic illness and take charge of their health.
"chronic illness", very specific! And in only 12 days! Wow.
Okay, it doesn't get any better when you get specific:
Osteoporosis (no, you can't reverse that, though with diet AND medication, you can slow it). Arthritis, same. Cancer? Ooh, that's a bold claim, "this diet will reverse cancer". Multiple sclerosis, same.
My friend went on this diet, but wasn’t able to stay on it.
It did reduce his high blood pressure and he was able to go off the medication he was on.
He told me to look into it but I am not on any medication and am older than my friend; he dropped the issue when I pointed out that both of my parents had lived years longer than Dr. McDougall.
I don't know if I would call a guy who created a low-fat vegetarian fad diet that doesn't seem to have a basis in any understanding of nutritional science a "well respected doctor," but sure.
I would argue that whatever good Steve Jobs did by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, he could have done more by also taking good medical advice and treating his cancer.
His type of cancer is very hard to treat. So it isn't clear that taking good medical advice would have done anything (often there isn't anything they can give), but it wouldn't have hurt.
False. Out of all pancreatic cancers, his type of cancer is the most likely to respond to prompt treatment, especially in the extremely lucky case when it's discovered early, like in his case. His decision to wait 9 months with surgery caused his cancer to grow, and increased the likelihood of it metastasing - which indeed happened as the cancer spread to his liver.
