[LINK] Why did Steve Jobs choose not to effectively treat his cancer?

From Quora:

"Now Mr. Jobs always was a free thinker, a strong believer in spirituality, a vegetarian and a known skeptic of conventional medicine. He chose to reject conventional medicine altogether. He's not alone in that. We come across many people like this and we all know someone in our midst that uses homeopathy or has this known fear of anything "chemical" (to those I always say that everything is chemical, if you think dihydrogen oxide sounds scary you should stop drinking water). Individual freedom of thought and choice is a cornerstone of our modern society and the medical world makes no exception."

From Quora:

"Now Mr. Jobs always was a free thinker, a strong believer in spirituality, a vegetarian and a known skeptic of conventional medicine. He chose to reject conventional medicine altogether. He's not alone in that. We come across many people like this and we all know someone in our midst that uses homeopathy or has this known fear of anything "chemical" (to those I always say that everything is chemical, if you think dihydrogen oxide sounds scary you should stop drinking water). Individual freedom of thought and choice is a cornerstone of our modern society and the medical world makes no exception."

The bonus of "alternative medicine" for most is that it puts control into your hands, allows you to experiment empirically, taking all the data you can, and applying it with the best information you can find to achieve a cure.

"Alternative medicine" is very rarely supported by well documented research with good methodology. When it is, it tends to become mainstream.

You can experiment empirically with mainstream medicine, as with alternative medicine, but in both cases usually only with a sample size of one. Research in mainstream medicine is corrupted by publication bias and industries with vested interest in funding studies with positive results, but alternative medicine is even worse, adding complete failure to understand credible research design or statistics into the mix. Individuals engaging in personal experimentation tend to be no less prone to bias, and are in a much worse position to conduct meaningful research.

The point is not for individuals to create generalizeable claims, but rather to allow idiosyncratic individuals with unique problems and life situations to improve their health. You cannot argue with the results individuals achieve. Of course, much of this individual research is only necessitated by the utter lack of reliable data:

"Researchers reviewed 546 drug trials and found that industry-funded trials reported positive outcomes 85% of the time compared with 50% of the time for government-funded trials and 72% of the time for trials funded by nonpr... (read more)

3buybuydandavis15y

That's nearly a contradiction in terms. Mainstream medicine, as a practice, refuses empirical experimentation on particular patients. Here's the disease. Here is the cookbook cure that has been sanctioned by some professional board, with backing by a billion dollar study that shows some statistical advantage over a whole population. If there is no such study, then the prescription is a shrug and a pat on the head. Older family practicioners often aren't like that. They'll say "I don't really know what will work for you, but we can try a few things". Think of a car mechanic. He thinks about how a car works, runs diagnostic tests, and swaps out parts. He doesn't have placebo controlled double blinded studies, and doesn't just shrug when he doesn't have a study, or doesn't have an immediate answer. [...] I completely disagree. He is uniquely situated and motivated to conduct research to solve the problem at hand - his problem If it works for you, then it works for you. No billion dollar study required, and it doesn't matter what the statistical averages are when you determine it works for you. That is the problem to be solved - an individual's problem. Given that he and no one else has possession of the system requiring fixing, he is in a very good position to do "research" to fix his problem, if he is not prevented by regulations and institutions barring him from tests, materials, and treatments. He has much more motivation to fix the problem than his doctor, who has a great many more compelling interests than healing his patient.

16[anonymous]15y

Or, as Tim Minchin puts it: [...]

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[LINK] Why did Steve Jobs choose not to effectively treat his cancer?

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[LINK] Why did Steve Jobs choose not to effectively treat his cancer?

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