An Apple a Day

by Andrea Zeelie

I walked into Chapters the other week greeted by countless facsimiles of a stoic Steve Jobs, his defiant attitude apparent on his newly released biography. I flipped through the pages, eager to learn more about the medical side of his premature demise.

Jobs was diagnosed with a treatable form of pancreatic cancer, still in its early stages. Medical professionals recommended the surgical removal of the neuroendocrine islet tumor, in accordance with the evidence-based approach of conventional medicine. Evidence-based medicine (or practice) is medical protocol that is rooted in scientifically tested and proven approaches. Instead of opting for surgery, as advised by his doctor and medical team, Jobs elected to seek alternative treatment.

Alternative medicine, also known as complementary or integrative medicine, is founded on historical or cultural wisdom. Alternative medicine promotes a holistic approach, focusing on mind, body, and spirit. Alternative therapies include the manipulation of the physical body and its energies. Alternative remedies are comprised of natural treatments using herbs and other biological substances, such as booster juices and supplements.The rationale for alternative remedies recognizes that many of the synthetic materials used in conventional medicine are replications of plant or natural materials, but with greater potency or lesser toxicity.

A healthy lifestyle is the best prevention for disease. The best defenses against non-communicable (non-infectious) diseases are a balanced diet, regular exercise, and avoidance of smoking and alcohol. A yoga instructor once told me that a lifetime of yoga would strengthen and open my body in such a way that I would likely never need hip replacement surgery. I stretched even deeper into half pigeon pose, encouraged by the benefit of a flexible body as the best prevention against injury.

Yet just as yoga will not heal a broken hip, a healthy lifestyle is unlikely to be an effective treatment for disease. Diseases, whether infectious like HIV or non-infectious like cancer, are comprised of destructive pathogens that wreak havoc on the human body. Holistic remedies are unable to defend the human body, or to launch an attack on an evolving virus or tumor. Like chemotherapy, antiretroviral drugs (the accepted course of treatment for HIV) are aggressive, and take their toll on the human body. These treatments are designed to destroy invaders, not the human body, and the benefits usually outweigh the side-effects.

Nine months after diagnosis, at the urging of loved ones, Steve Jobs underwent medical surgery. By then it was too late: the cancer had spread to his liver and had already begun to spread elsewhere. Proponents of alternative healing have foolishly pinned his death on chemotherapy itself. In an era of genetically modified foods, it is no wonder that a return to organic and natural living is on the rise. But romanticism of a pure and untainted life should not cloud judgment. Modern medicine has been shown to be best suited to curative interventions as clinical research leads to ever more effective treatment protocols. This in no way diminishes the value of alternative medicine, which is increasingly accepted in the field of prevention. It is a case of selecting a tool which is “fit for purpose”: alternative remedies are appropriate for disease prevention, while conventional science has been shown, through empirical evidence, to be the best course of action when curative intervention is required.

Perhaps the real tragedy is that the brilliant Jobs failed to make the optimum treatment choice at a critical juncture in his life. He did, however, have the smarts to make this admission, which raises the hope that his vast audience will gain valuable wisdom from his insight. An apple a day will not keep the doctor away.

Image courtesy of Microsoft Office.