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Steve Jobs is a prime example, he tried to treat his pancreatic cancer with fruit. Also see Thomas Seyfried's work on ketogenic diets for cancer https://www.bc

• methyl 2y ago
  Pancreatic cancer doesn’t have good prognosis in the first place, no matter what you eat or don’t eat.
  • twostorytower 2y ago
    But his was actually one of the most treatable forms and he could have potentially had many many years added to his life had he initially listened to his doctors.
    • SoftTalker 2y ago
      Yes I was downvoted last time I posted this, but: Don't try to be your own lawyer, and don't try to be your own doctor.
  • mchannon 2y ago
    This is the tail wagging the dog. Jobs' fruitarianism meant he didn't eat eggs, meat, dairy, or other sources of selenium. Fruit doesn't contain selenium. One of Selenium deficiency's side effects, well established in the literature: pancreatic cancer.
• throw646577 2y ago
  He's not a prime example of anything to do with fruit making things worse. His chosen therapy just as likely had no worsening impact on his cancer; the problem was it had no positive impact either and he put off surgery. He had a rare form of pancreatic cancer that grows from the tip of the pancreas and can sometimes be snipped out without consequence early enough that it doesn't spread. He presumably freaked out about it all nevertheless (because it's terrifying), avoided surgery for too long and ended up having a Whipple procedure, which is fucking brutal. But there's still a pretty good chance he would have had early surgery and still ended up needing a Whipple procedure and still have passed away on roughly the same timescale. Because pancreatic cancer is a stealthy thing, and the Whipple procedure comes with its own frightening future. It's really sad he freaked out, it's really sad he didn't listen. But it's not that unusual. He's far from unique in making irrational decisions in the face of terrifying diagnoses. Should it have been a slam dunk decision? Yeah. Of course. But there we are.
  • amaurose 2y ago
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    • throw646577 2y ago
      [flagged]
      • fsckboy 2y ago
        anecdata is no substitute for controlled studies. This study says fructose may have cancer implications, and Steve Jobs did focus on consuming fruit before he died of cancer. That there were treatments available that he forwent is immaterial, he's still a fructose datapoint in this context. i hate nerd tunnel vision. "I know a lot about some related things so I must know the answer.
        • swatcoder 2y ago
          With respect, it's absurdly more specious and naive to go from "mouse study suggests contigent relationship between fructose and cancer cell behavior as seen in the specific limited models of the study, inviting further research" to "Public figure with especially agressive and entirely unrelated cancer reportedly ate something that happens to contain fructose and eventually died! Same thing!"
          • lambdaba 2y ago
            He didn't just eat some fruit, he ate ONLY fruit and JUICED it. He MEGADOSED on fruit.
            • swatcoder 2y ago
              That still doesn't inform us in any way that directly relates to the study. In the big picture of cancer research, there are countless caveats and idiosycracies because most cancers are more different from each other than they are similar. This is only amplified when you're trying to make inferences about dietary consumption, where interactions between coincident foodstuffs have large chaotic effects and species (and individuals) often have different digestive behavior on the way from dietary food to some intracellular interaction. Ignoring all that inherent, acknowledged, complexity so that one might harp on some dead punching bag whose story is only known through the lens of commercial media is about as anti-scientific as you could be.
• andai 2y ago
  Another comment mentioned that the mechanism by which fructose promotes tumor growth is that it increases circulating lipids. But I'm wondering, doesn't keto (which seems to fight cancer) also do that?
  • throw646577 2y ago
    Not much evidence that keto fights cancer any better than any other exclusion diet; it might even be worse than meat exclusion diets.
    • lambdaba 2y ago
      "Not much evidence"? That is so far from the truth.
    • andai 2y ago
      Interesting. There's some evidence that fasting fights cancer, and there's a good deal of overlap between the effects of keto and fasting. Though obviously "stop eating everything that gives you cancer" is also a good start, and you can definitely eat processed garbage even on keto.
• rozal 2y ago
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• outworlder 2y ago
  > Steve Jobs is a prime example, he tried to treat his pancreatic cancer with fruit. That is true – and probably didn't help. But his case is a poor example since he delayed treatment for months. EDIT: Also, actual fruits are probably not an issue. It's difficult to eat too much fruit, unless in juice form... which he did.
• lm28469 2y ago
  > Steve Jobs is a prime example, he tried to treat his pancreatic cancer with fruit. Pancreatic cancer will fuck you up pretty much no matter what you do. I think it literally is the cancer with the smallest survival rate
  • medler 2y ago
    He was lucky to get a rare, slow moving form of the cancer that can be cured with surgery if caught early enough. Unfortunately he waited nine months before getting surgery.
  • former-aws 2y ago
    Glioblastoma has entered the chat :-)