I was shocked when I first heard that Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple, died Wednesday at the age of 56. Such a loss. Jobs had a huge impact on innovation and technology with Apple. But as we all saw during the last few years he had a bigger issue going on personally with his health.
Doctors confirmed late Wednesday he died of a rare form of Pancreatic Cancer, that even lead him to have a liver transplant in 2009. It was back at that time that the celiac disease rumors were flying.
Time Magazine, did an entire article entitled What’s Ailing Steve Jobs? Medical Opinion Varies, January 6, 2009 in which a doctor suspected celiac disease. Another article in Motley Fool also in January of 2009 had the author, Tim Beyers, reporting “…the New York Times cites sources that say Jobs isn’t suffering from a recurrence of pancreatic cancer but a condition that ‘was preventing his body from absorbing food.'” Then Beyers says, “I’ve said before that his condition sounds like celiac disease and I still believe that.” Celiac.com also wondered about Jobs’s diagnosis and cited the aforementioned Motley Fool article.
Is there a connection between celiac disease and pancreatic cancer? Perhaps. The University of Maryland says “pancreatic disease” can be a long term effect of celiac disease. But I was unable to find any research really connecting the two. And were they related in Steve Jobs’s case? That we may never know.
Peace to his family during this difficult time.
Tags: Apple, cancer, celiac, steve jobs
November 8th, 2011 at 11:36 pm
I have also wondered if an undiagnosed gluten sensitivity/celiac may have predisposed him to inflammation of the pancreatic neuro-endocrine cells, setting upt the conditions for this cancer. His unusual eating habits and vegan lifestyle, if her were gluten intolerant, may have been problematic. Since his genome is sequenced, it would be interesting to learn if he were a DQ2 or DQ8. If that were the case, it might be helpful to future vegans to check this out first.