When Should We Accept Suffering?

What medicine can relieve, what wisdom must endure

A Question Worth Asking

When is it good to accept suffering?

Accept? What?!?

That question sounds strange in a medical culture built, understandably, around relief. We want to reduce pain, treat disease, shorten recovery, and help people feel better. That is good work.

But the deeper question is not whether suffering is good in itself. Usually it is not. The better question is whether trying to avoid every form of suffering can quietly make us less honest, less resilient, and less able to love well.

Some suffering is needless and should be opposed. The suffering of untreated depression. The suffering of preventable disease. The suffering that comes from abuse, neglect, addiction, or medical error. We should not romanticize any of that.

But other forms of suffering seem woven into the structure of a meaningful life. There is the soreness of rehabilitation after surgery. The frustration of weight loss that makes it sustainable long term. The grief that comes with loving aging parents. The anxiety of waiting for an important biopsy result that signals the value of the result. The loneliness that can come with telling the truth when it costs you something. There is no mature life that avoids all of this.

Acceptance, in that sense, is not passive. It is not the same as giving up. It is closer to reality-based courage. It means recognizing that some discomfort is not a sign that something has gone wrong. Sometimes it is the price of healing. Sometimes it is the cost of love, meaning, and self-overcoming. Sometimes it is simply what it feels like to live truthfully in a fragile body in a finite world (Haque et al., 2026).

The art, both in medicine and in life, is learning to tell the difference between suffering that should be relieved and suffering that should be endured with patience, wisdom, and support.

A Clinical Pearl People Often Miss

A 56-year-old man once told me, with understandable satisfaction, that he had “fixed” his cholesterol. He had improved his diet, lost a little weight, and his latest LDL number looked better than it had the year before. What he had not really considered was time.

One of the most important things people miss about cholesterol is that risk is cumulative. Atherosclerosis does not care only about today’s LDL. It also reflects years of exposure. That is one reason modern lipid guidance emphasizes earlier and more sustained LDL lowering in people at meaningful risk. A better number this year is good news, but it does not fully erase the biological effects of a high number over the previous decade (Ference et al., 2017).

That does not mean every patient needs aggressive medication. It does mean cholesterol management is best understood as long-term risk reduction, not as a single lab result passed or failed.

Three Worthwhile Reads

How the Whole-Grain Trend Went Wrong by Trisha Pasricha.
Many whole-grain foods behave in the body much the same as the refined products they were meant to replace! A thoughtful corrective to simplistic nutrition labeling. The most useful point is not that whole grains are bad. It is that heavily processed “whole-grain” foods may not behave metabolically like the healthier foods many consumers imagine they are buying. (The Atlantic)

Lilly’s Weight-Loss Pill Wins U.S. Approval, Sets Up Next Battle With Rival Novo Nordisk by Leah Douglas and Christy Santhosh.
Worth reading because oral GLP-1 drugs may change the obesity conversation again, especially for patients who care as much about convenience and adherence as efficacy. Reuters reports that Lilly’s newly approved pill helped trial participants lose about 12% to 15% of body weight. (Reuters)

A Cancer Treatment That Does More Than Scientists Thought
Originally designed for cancer, CAR-T is now raising cautious hopes in some autoimmune diseases too. This piece is worth reading because it captures both the excitement and the restraint that frontier medicine requires when early promise begins to spill into entirely new areas of care. Published April 9, 2026. (The Atlantic)

One Final Thought

One mark of maturity is learning not to ask only, “How do I make this feeling go away?” Sometimes that is exactly the right question. But sometimes the better question is, “What is this burden asking of me?” More patience? Better judgment? More courage? More support? In health, as in the rest of life, wisdom often begins there.

Thank you for reading. This week’s theme is really about discernment: knowing which burdens should be treated, which risks should be reduced early, and which hard things are simply part of loving and living honestly.

If you know someone who might find this helpful, feel free to pass it along. Paid members are welcome to share questions or thoughts in the comments.

To your health,
-Dr. Haque

PS:

For a clear, evidence-based look at Zetia and statin intolerance, watch my new video here:

References

Ference, B. A., Ginsberg, H. N., Graham, I., Ray, K. K., Packard, C. J., Bruckert, E., ... & Catapano, A. L. (2017). Low-density lipoproteins cause atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. 1. Evidence from genetic, epidemiologic, and clinical studies. A consensus statement from the European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel. European heart journal, 38(32), 2459-2472.

Haque, O. S., Wortham, J., Case, B. W., Cowden, R. G., Goodman, D., Lomas, T., ... & Vander Weele, T. J. (2026). Acceptance as a Response to Suffering: Insights from World Religious and Philosophical Traditions. Journal of Religion and Health, 1-25.

This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personal medical advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your medications, diet, supplements, exercise, or health routine. Reading this content does not create a physician–patient relationship with Dr. Haque.