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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."
If anime has taught me anything, Steve Jobs should be back to work in no time with a huge rack.
from the can't-believe-this-is-news dept
When many people believe that the continued success of a large company depends on one individual, his health becomes news.
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why is not Ballmer loosing weight despite of being unable to sit down anywhere?
I don't think Steve is the only one resolving to be "back to normal weight" by spring.
"stop the Tumors."
There, fixed that for ya...
.... How does this influence the strength of the Reality Distortion Field??
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
The big question is, which Steve will be commemorated by the U.S. Postal Service on a stamp? The younger, chubbier Steve or the older, skinnier, playing-in-Vegas Steve. If only there was a precedent...
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
How do I *get* this hormone imbalance?
Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
Being that he had pancreatic cancer, he's probably on a special diet. A fatty diet causes a pancreas much grief.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I guess Jobs should have eaten an apple a day to keep the doctor away.
I'm a satanic clam.
dad?
Don't you mean "father"?
"male parental unit" would be acceptable too.
I just want to update everyone on my weight. I lost a few pounds when I got sick recently. Well, that or the scale varies by a few pounds (I just started using it, so I don't know how much it normally varies). I hope to have my weight back up in a few weeks. I hope this calms everyone's curiosity. I'll keep you updated on this as it progresses.
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.
I haven't heard of anyone getting better from pancreatic cancer.
Now you have. A few minutes with Wikipedia reveals that "Jobs was lucky; he had an extremely rare form called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor that can be treated surgically, without radiation or chemotherapy." (From the Fortune article the Steve Jobs Wikipedia article links to.)
It's really dicey for non-experts (or, probably even experts) to make generalizations based on the common name of a cancer, without knowing exactly what variety of the disease it is, what stage it's at, and so on. Jobs has been (apparently) cancer-free since his surgery in July 2004.
If Apple's doomed the minute Jobs is no longer running the helm, you might as well start running like hell as far away as you can from Apple right now. Jobs is a mortal, and will not be around forever. Find a company or product that will not immediately collapse when its founder dies or retires.
Do you *really* want to be running on something with a future that uncertain? I for one don't believe that Apple's on that shakey ground, but for those who do believe that, if they're still running on Apple, they're crazy.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
It'll either be that or the iMortal.
A buxom Steve Jobs delivered a healthy keynote at MacWorld 2010. After months of hormone imbalance treatment Jobs emerged on stage at this year's MacWorld sporting a apple logo tube top, short shorts and C cups.
A rare but treatable kind of pancreatic cancer, which he foolishly tried to treat by eating mostly raw vegetables, before having the operation. It's not much of speculation, it's a matter of record.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
I was just reading the Pixar history book this weekend and reminded of Steve's eccentricities like two months almost solely ric macrobiotic diet; Atari putting him on the night shift because he smelled so bad ...
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.
is an anagram of 'a common rehab line'
You stick it in, and ... boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
or badgers..
Requiem for the American Dream
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.
I am a physician and I have actually performed a few Whipple procedures in my training. I can say that upon reading this letter, I immediately smelled big-time BS.
There are some treatable medical causes of cachexia (profound weight loss) but they are not difficult to diagnosis. If he had pancreatic insufficiency following his pancreas resection, this should have been quickly noted because it is common and his newfound symptoms of diabetes are easily recognized.
Hyperthyroidism is another cause of weight loss, but any doctor worth his salt would have screened for this right away. Celiac disease is another possibility but again this is not a difficult diagnosis because of the GI symptoms (lots of diarrhea).
The most likely cause of weight loss in this setting is cancer, cancer, and cancer. It can sometimes be very difficult to find where exactly the cancer metastases have recurred, and this can delay the proper diagnosis.
The main thing that Jobs has going for him is that this weight loss was first publicly noted some time ago now, and he does not have other signs of cancer that we know of. Jobs does not seem to be the type to hide it if he knew he had cancer. At least, he didn't hide it the first time, right?
shellac.
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.
I hope he goes on to enjoy a long and happy old age.
Nullius in verba
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. "
Well I'll be snookered... it's true!
http://wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=hormone+imbalance&t=1000
Those who complain about affect & effect on
I shouldn't reply to this ridiculous posting, which implies that somehow because I am both a doctor and a geek I am not allowed to have an opinion on a media report on a medical issue. But fine, I will take the bait.
I am not Steve Jobs' doctor and I am not trying to be. The OP solicited a doctor's opinion and I gave mine with the little information I could guess at from a media report.
COMMON SENSE would dictate that I am not making an ironclad diagnosis from a media report, but apparently it is because of people such as yourself, who are lacking in this capacity, that people have to post disclaimers at the bottom of their comments and email or whatever that they are only giving their opinion and not a professional service.
Before I posted my earlier message I had a discussion about the media report with one of my colleagues. It would seem then that you would prefer doctors to keep such talk to ourselves. You are quite free to block my comments or refrain from reading them from now on.
shellac.
This is a well known complication of having pancreas surgery. Some patients need pancreatic enzymes supplements afterwards to process proteins.
This sort of thing should not be a "mystery" to Jobs' doctors as the press release says.
"Heck, I had half of my digestive system removed and rearranged and now my hormones are raging, or not, and it's all a mess in there. I'm wasting away into a holocaust of a man but hey I'll be back as Steve 3.0 in no time. The monopoly that Nature has on life can't stop me. No matter what bugs she throws at me I'll bounce back with new the iHormone product line, exclusively from Apple." - A glued back together man named Steve Jobs.
Seriosly Steve I wish you the best. Please sell OSX for high end generic PCs and crush Microcrap while you're still alive. Thanks.
The idea that five years means cancer is "cured" is ridiculous. Yes, that's when you actually get to use the word, but it's completely meaningless. The relapse rate for some cancers dwindles to near zero after just two years (maybe less, I don't know about that many cancers) - some, there's a significant risk of recurrence for a long time. The five-year mark is just something they came up with long ago to make people feel better. So he's been cancer-free for 4.5 years - I'll have my next CT scan about 4.5 years after being declared in complete remission, and that is scheduled to be my last scan. My oncologist clearly isn't too worried about those last six months.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Trust me, once you've heard the words "It's cancer," suddenly the words "it's a type with a very high survival rate" make you feel incredibly lucky.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Pancreatic Cancer has a 6% 5-year survival rate.
Again, this is pretty misleading unless you consider the specific cancer rather than "pancreatic cancer" as a generic. The statistic you cite is for "Estimated Five-year Relative Survival Ratio (%) (and 95% Confidence Interval) for the Most Common Cancers", and you read off the "pancreas" line. The specific case in question is not one of "the most common cancers" but (AFAICT) a different disease of the same organ.
Pancreatica.org has this to say about islet cell tumors:
Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas (islet cell tumors) are much less common than tumors arising from the exocrine pancreas. Reports often indicate that there are about two to three thousand cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year
and
The natural history of islet cell and carcinoic tumors tends to be favorable as compared with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. For example, the median survival duration from the time of diagnosis for patients with non-functioning metastatic islet cell tumors approaches five years.
(Johns Hopkins agrees.)
The Pancreatica article says this compares to a median survival time of 15.5 months for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas ("pancreatic cancer") treated with the same surgery Jobs had.
From what I've read in various places, consulting doctors for health advice isn't his primary strategy. I've heard the Whipple was only after everything else (quirky diets, 'alternative' healers) failed. Though I suppose there must have been some testing in there to have a diagnosis in the first place.
I don't know what's going on, I'm just pointing out that the doctors you presume are there may not be (at least regularly), nor would they necessarily have a good patient.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)