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Steve Jobs Issues Update On His Health
i4u writes "Rumors about Steve Jobs' health have been flying high again after Apple announced that he will not be holding the keynote at the Macworld 2009. Today Steve Jobs issued a letter with a rather personal update on why he was losing weight in 2008. The reason for losing weight in 2008 is a hormone imbalance that has been reducing proteins. The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward according to Jobs.
Steve and his doctors predict that he will have normal weight again by Spring. So stop the rumors and enjoy Macworld 2009."
Being that he had pancreatic cancer, he's probably on a special diet. A fatty diet causes a pancreas much grief.
What is the justification for the second sentence? A healthy, high-fat diet (which, for the same number of total calories, will have to be lower in carbs) will demand less insulin of the pancreas.
I don't follow this stuff, but if he had/has pancreatic cancer, my guess is he is dying. Pancreatic cancer is a bitch, I've seen two people die from it. I had an old boss who went from 200 lbs over weight to looking anorexic and managed to fight it for a couple years. I think by going on a some experimental special diet, but it still destroyed him. I haven't heard of anyone getting better from pancreatic cancer.
The body loses efficiency in absorbing some nutrients like B12 as one ages. Jobs has been known to have some weird diets when younger. But he has often hired private chefs who specialize in quality vegetarian preparation.
Sorry, but I can't believe the incredible amount of stupid comments posted here on this article. Jobs basically announces he's not dying and Apple's shares jump 4%. Apple isn't a one man operation and Wall Street knows that. It's probably safe to assume that every single innovation that's come out of Apple in the past 11 years hasn't been dumped straight from Steve's brain either.
Steve's marketing genius and patient leadership are the real value he provides to Apple, and losing his leadership is what makes investors nervous. As some suggest, Apple pulling the Stevenote from MacWorld is an attempt to address the former, but without a plan to address the latter, Wall Street will still freak out at the possibility of Apple losing Jobs.
In a world where IT companies are constantly diversifying their offerings, rushing products to market, and generally playing a bizarre game of throw 50 products at the market and see which ones stick, Apple is playing its cards close to its chest - and has been successfully since Job's return. It's not chasing emerging markets (Netbooks), it's not trying to get into online advertising (Microsoft) and hell it's not even doing things that outsiders think it should be doing to expand its business. Apple's stock value is based on the perception that is has a master plan. This is what makes Apple unique. And this is the value of Steve Jobs.
Next step is for #2 to come out with "Steve Jobs has actually been dead for 3 years". Maybe not that extreme but the best way to reassure investors is to think that Jobs is running everything while having someone else actually run everything.
You know, there can be some pretty complicated and rare syndromes related to pancreatic hormones insofar as cancer is concerned. However, I have no idea what he is alluding to here. The most likely answer for why a person without part of a pancreas would be losing nutrients would be a deficiency in exocrine pancreatic enzymes leading to steatorrhea and calorie loss. However, the description of hormones instead of enzymes and sophisticated blood tests instead of stool tests is a little confusing. My understanding is that he had a Whipple procedure for a neuroendocrine tumor. He would certainly be at risk for steatorrhea. People with neuroendocrine tumors can overproduce certain hormones (such as glucagon) which can lead to weight loss from chronic diarrhea. However, if his problem was due to such overproduction, that would certainly mean that his cancer had not been cured by the surgery and probably wouldn't be described as an "imbalance."
Anyway, I'm not his doctor and don't know much about his case, but can't really put together what he's given us into a coherent story. Maybe someone else can speculate, but it's a bit of a mystery what he is referring to here.
You mean the guy that practically invented the PDA and could have made Apple the biggest company in the tech world with it?
Yeah, I remember him. Getting rid of him is the the reason Apple's going to be #2 in the computer world forever.
Sculley sucked at building PCs, that's for sure. He would have made a kick-ass iPhone/iPod combo years ago, though, and I could see him creating an Apple version of a game console, too. It's really too bad Apple didn't keep him for his non-PC related talents.
Oh well, why should I complain? The only Apple product I own was bought at a flea-sale for $25... :D
I am a junior doctor and an old time contributor to Slashdot. I want to comment on this press release but I'm not interested in any trouble my guesswork may cause me.
Steve Jobs had pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple's Procedure) for pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer a while ago. His press release is very cryptic and makes little sense because he's using the layman's definition of terms he's using instead of precise medical terms. I'll do my best to decipher it.
First of all, Jobs is losing weight. Is this malnutrition or cancer-related cachexia? The former simply has to do with the body not receiving enough nurishment. The latter is an inflammatory condition related to abnormalities in inflammatory cytokines. Both cause similar outward effects but the underlying processes are very different. If we are to believe the press release then Jobs doesn't have a resurgence of his cancer. A Bloomberg article today commented that "Neuroendocrine islet cell tumors can cause overproduction of either one, or other powerful hormones such as somatostatin or gastrin, which are involved in digestion." While this is true, we are assuming Jobs had his tumor completely reseted so this isn't very likely. Therefore he probably has some form of malnutrition (more on this later).
"Nutrition Management of the Cancer Patient" By Abby S. Bloch states on page 89:
"Surgical resection as a treatment modality for pancreatic cancer creates several nutrition challenges: malabsorption caused by inadequate or absent exocrine pancreatic secretions or obstruction of the common bile duct (or both), diabetes mellitus resulting from resection of endocrine pancreatic cells, and protein-calorie malnutrition, which develops secondary to malabsorption."
If we are to believe the press release, then chances are it could be any of these issues. The only issues that fall under a "nutritional problem [that] is relatively simple and straightforward" are or absent exocrine pancreatic secretions, diabetes mellitus, and protein-calorie malnutrition secondary to malabsorption.
There are several articles which discuss these issues both in chronic pancreatitis and in patients status-post pancreatic resection and intestinal bypass. The one curious omission in the press release is the onset of symptoms. Mr. Jobs sounds like he was surprised by his weight loss and his doctors were confused. In Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency patients often have statorrhea which is a white-colored and foul smelling fat rich stool. Did he not notice this or was this detail to vulgar for Apple's shareholders and fanbase? It's wholly possible that he didn't have statorrhea which could have caused his doctors to run more tests to check for the worst-case scenarios such as his cancer reappearing. I think its fairly safe to take Mr. Jobs at his word. If his symptoms don't change by Spring then we can revisit this topic.
Anyway, "Pancreatic Cancer" By Douglas Brian Evans, Peter W. T. Pisters, James L. Abbruzzese is a wonderful resource that spends a great deal of time discussing Whipple's Procedure and I would suggest reading Part III from pages 123 to 232. Another great research paper is: "Management of complications following pancreaticoduodenectomy" by CJ Yeo.
Lastly I'd like to say this is all guesswork without having Mr. Jobs' and his test results in front of me so I welcome other doctors, experts, and researchers to comment on this press release. We can all benefit by collaboration. Remember, chaos is the score upon which reality is written but collaboration can swiftly bring some order.
Your comments seem, well... under-informed.
Here's a link to a user comment that I found pretty interesting regarding the ability of post-Whipple procedures patients to process proteins.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/new-money/2009/01/05/some-arent-buying-steve-jobs-hormone-imbalance.html#1593509
For those that don't click through, here's a quote of a portion:
"the person has an unusual level of difficulty digesting proteins, fats, and starches since pancreatic enzyme levels are reduced and since the duodenum is missing. Unlike ferrets (who also get a little understood form of insulinoma, with insulinoma being a topic that needs a lot of study still) humans just don't have a lot of excess pancreas to spare. So, the upshot is that his body now will have more of his food go through without needed nutrients digested. Hence, the weight loss.
Add to this that he is a vegetarian, in fact, a vegan. Vegetable protein is especially difficult to break into usable amino acids. Animal protein is far easier to utilize.
Furthermore, people who have had the Whipple Procedure sometimes find themselves simply not feeling like having the many and frequent small meals the procedure makes necessary, and as a vegan Mr Jobs may resist the foods that settle the belly at such times: full fat yogurts, full fat milk, and cheeses. "
During the dot-com days, his business card would have read, "Technological Evangelist."
I think that understates his value to Apple. A "Technological Evangelist" promotes the technology that a company has. Jobs does do this, but he also recognizes which technologies to push the development of, what markets to enter and he rides people to create products that fit his vision/version of perfection.
That's not to say he's irreplaceable, just that since his return he has been highly effective in leading Apple's success.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
Wow, touchy aren't we? I guess you didn't care too much about the talk regarding McCain's chances of melanoma recurrence either. I think that was an important discussion that I would have chimed in on as well, had I seen a posting here. Just as this discussion is important to certain AAPL shareholders.
But I guess if you don't really have an argument to make you can always attack the individual. Good luck with that.