Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ health is a much discussed topic after he was noticed a sudden weight loss since 2008. His cancellation of a keynote speech at Macworld 2009 sparked a lot to think Jobs is in great ill, some pransters even spoofed Steve Jobs death news. In a letter to quell Apple community’s concerns for his health, CEO Steve Jobs said it was a hormone imbalance that caused him the weight loss while without giving any details. Also, he said he was expected to regain weight late this Spring as the remedy for his nutritional problem “is relatively simple and straightforward”. However, Times‘ article on the topic doubted Steve Jobs’ hormone imbalance excuse/explaination and even suspected he might have a second cancer (Steve was striken with pancreatic cancer in 2004):
[...] No illness involving a combination of a hormone imbalance and a loss of proteins that causes dramatic weight loss could be remedied with a simple nutritional fix, Lustig says.
A hormonal imbalance would indeed suggest an endocrine problem, like diabetes, says Lustig, but many of the conditions that cause the body to lose vital proteins are not endocrine in nature. If a patient were losing the proteins through urine, diabetes could be an explanation, but so could other conditions, including multiple myeloma, a cancer that causes symptoms ranging from bone pain to weight loss.
Pancreatic cancer could also cause protein loss during the digestive process, Lustig says, which would suggest a recurrence of the malignant tumor that Jobs battled 2004. It is unlikely, however, that Jobs’ original cancer has spread, Lustig says. Since pancreatic cancer is so swift and deadly, “We have to assume he was cured of that,” Lustig says. “If he weren’t, he would have been dead years ago.” But having developed one endocrine tumor increases the patient’s risk for developing a second.
Another explanation for a protein deficiency is that the body is simply not producing enough of them — a symptom of conditions including hypothyroidism, in which the body underproduces necessary hormones, or Cushing’s syndrome, Lustig says. But both conditions cause weight gain, not loss. Another possible cause is celiac disease, in which a gluten intolerance diminishes the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, but that’s a digestive order, not the result of a hormone imbalance, Lustig says. What’s more, almost none of the hypothesized disorders involving hormone imbalance and protein deficiency can be treated with a basic change in nutrition. “There is no one disease process that encompasses these three medical threads,” says Lustig.
#Permalink Tags: Apple, Health, Steve Jobs, Weight Loss
