Alternative Treatments May Have Doomed Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs would probably be alive today if he had been less of a skeptic about conventional medicine, according to a Harvard expert who has researched the kind of cancer that killed the Apple CEO. Jobs' preference for alternative medicine—outlined in a 2008 CNN article—caused him to delay surgery after cancer was detected, allowing the disease to spread, Ramzi Amri writes at Quora. Jobs, a vegetarian and a Buddhist, spent nine months trying to avoid surgery by sticking to a special diet, he notes.

After having major surgery, even as he began to visibly shed weight, Jobs appears to have "opted to dedicate his time to Apple as the disease progressed, instead of opting for chemotherapy or any other conventional treatment," Amri writes, stressing that he has the "profoundest respect" for Jobs and his legacy. "Even for one of the greatest personalities of the last 100 years, there will be no exception, and badly treated cancer is just as deadly for him as for anyone else," Amri concludes. (More pancreatic cancer stories.)