Medical Thoughts on Steve Jobs’ Health

Most of you probably followed the ongoing lame, impolite and controverse discussion about Steve Jobs’ Health. There has been a rigorous debate whether a publicially traded CEOs Health should be someone’s business, especially to Investors and Shareholders. Silicon Alley Insider argued that, contrary to most other comments, it IS the shareholder’s right to know every aspect and detail about the respective company’s CEO. Especially in the case of Apple and Jobs this seems to be crucial, due to his influence on the brand of Apple and furthermore the valuation of the company. 

Eventually, 1 day prior to the start of this years (and final) Apple’s presence at Mac Expo in San Francisco, Mr. Jobs wrote an open letter to Apple Consumers, Shareholders and other concerned people.

 

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

. . . As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing�? me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

 

I don’t want to focus on whether it is morally correct to discuss Mr. Jobs’ Health publically or not, but I would like to state my thoughts from a medical point of view. Being an MD I am obviously foremost interested in his medical problem, rather than anything else regarding this discussion.

The media generally speaks of a “pancreatic carcinoma” when speaking of Jobs’ Cancer, yet this is not really true – and in medical terms this is totally untrue. When looking through Wikipedia or the official Steve Jobs Biography (or the plethora of them available) you’ll notice that he had a Carcinoma of the islet cells of Langerhans IN the pancreas. The pancreas is a rather complex organ balancing our body’s sugar and insuline homeostasis. The Langerhans cells are responsible for a plethora of different hormones and their balance in the body. It is only obvious to me that his current “Hormone Imbalance” results from his cancer back in 2004. Especially the “superior hormone testing” he adressed seem to be providing evidence  that it’s got something to do with his Langerhans Cells (Their endocrinic cocktail is a blend of glucagon, insulin, somatostatin, polypeptides and grehlin – doesn’t sound that simple, does it?)

Grehlin, one of the hormones produced by the pancreas is responsible for managing the body’s fatty tissue; it’s the counterpart to Leptin and is a fundamental regulator when it comes to hunger, fat depots and your body’s  substance. I am rather sure that his current state is affiliated with, at least, Grehlin. Surely these effects (weight loss, fatigue, etc.) can easily be eliminted by substitution, yet this would then only be a “cure” of symptoms, not of the actual cause (this is a genral problem in modern medicine). All these facts emphasize the possiblity that his current state of health is somewhat realted to his prior Cancer Diagnosis.

There are plenty of possiblities of the WHY and HOW, yet it would be irrational, stupid and nonserious to continue speculating about reasons of Mr. Jobs’ weight loss. Therefore I will stop here, also due to my respect to Mr. Jobs Accomplishments and my admiration for him as a CEO, thinker and doer.

In any case, my dearest wishes to him and his family. I truly hope everything will be fine

Updated: One thing I forgot to mention and which i totally believe is true. Overal survival rates for pancreatic carcinoma are simply not that good. I don’t know the last studies but there is a median survival of around 6 months or so I believe. Jobs being still alive, 4 years after the diagnosis, is an inidcator that it hasn’t been “classical” pancreatic cancer, but a langerhanscell tumor