Bold or shy, just chill. You don’t need to take a pill

Forget inheriting the earth: The meek, it turns out, are more likely to inherit a sharp pain in the chest and an early trip to the bone yard.

A recent study indicates that shy guys — “socially avoidant” men, in the argot of the professionals — are 40 per cent more likely than their back-slapping, canape-noshing counterparts to die of heart disease or stroke.

The finding has researchers puzzling over potential remedies. “Could we take a ‘socially avoidant’ person and make (him) socially interactive?” asks report co-author Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones. “That’s not clear. Nor is it clear whether it’s the kind of thing one would want to treat with medication.”

Without the benefit of medical or psychological training, but applying a layman’s share of common sense, we say “no” and “no.” The world is populated by shy people and outgoing people, just as it’s populated by shy and outgoing dogs and cats, and presumably shy and outgoing dolphins and bears. Divergent personalities are not only bred in the bone, but they give society a degree of variety.

Furthermore, even if shyness could be cured with pills, there’s always a chance the cure will be as bad as the disease: overly aggressive “type A” personalities are also prone to dying young of heart attack or stroke. So too people who eat too much, or drink too little, or eat more than three eggs a week ( wait, the advice on eggs is always changing). The only thing that hasn’t been studied is the effect of an endless array of studies on the health of people who fret about studies.

Here’s a prescription we can all live with: Govern yourself with moderation. Do unto others. Tread lightly upon the earth.