Dr. Shari - A Postscript

The outpouring of affection and appreciation for Dr. Shari has been enormous, and many of you have written to me asking about the circumstances of her death.

Dr. Shari died of breast cancer.

This, of course, brings up the inevitable question, "How could this happen?".

Or more precisely, how does this happen to someone who knows so much about nutrition and health, who does all the right things, and who lives an exemplary life from the point of view of lifestyle choices, food, detoxification, supplements and emotional health?

And equally important, what does this mean?

For what it's worth, here's my take.

For any given disease- in fact, for any given bad event- there are multiple risk factors. Many of these risk factors are out of our control, many of them are very much in our control. We do everything we can to reduce the risk factors we can control and hope for the best with the ones we can't.

For example: If I drive sober all the time, wear my seatbelt and concentrate on the road when I'm driving, I've significantly, meaningfully decreased the odds of my being killed in a car. But I haven't eliminated that risk- a drunk driver could still jump the divider and plow into me headfirst in one crazy split second.

If I eat all the right foods, keep a healthy weight, exercise regularly, get some sun, sleep restfully for 8 hours a day, take supplements, meditate, give back, contribute and work on my emotional and spiritual health, I've significantly and meaningfully reduced the risk for dying from a host of diseases, and that has been demonstrated in study after study. But there are still factors beyond my control- exposure to a horrible toxin, being caught in a tsunami, having a particularly lethal combination of genes that I can't "turn off" by lifestyle choices.

The exact circumstances of Shari's death aren't known right now, but I suspect she died because of some combination of factors beyond her control.

But what should we take this to mean?

Should we not continue to do all the things we know are healthy and risk-reducing simply because we can't eliminate risk? Because a drunk driver kills a responsible driver should we "take" from this incident that we shouldn't drive responsibly?

Dr. Shari was a very visible figure who clearly led an exemplary life of health, so when someone like that is taken from us, there is a temptation to think, "maybe none of those healthy habits make a whit of difference". I think that's the wrong conclusion. While the loss of any young, bright, vibrant person is always tragic, let's remember how many people are living amazing, healthy lives because of these same healthy habits, people you may not have heard of and people who might well be dead were it not for those very same habits.

I knew Shari well enough professionally to be able to say that she would never want anyone to draw the conclusion from her untimely death that the healthy lifestyle that she advocated was a waste of time. I think she would have preferred to have us meditate for a moment on this thought:

"I seek

the serenity to accept what I cannot change;

the courage to change what I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference."