Shannen Doherty was a television and film actress whose roles included Jenny Wilder in Little House on the Prairie (1982), Maggie Malene in Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985); Kris Witherspoon in Our House (1986–1988), Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990, 2008 and 2019), Prue Halliwell in Charmed (1998) and Dobbs in Fortress (2021). On July 13, 2024, at age 53, she died from breast cancer that had spread through her body.
During her years of acting, she had multiple health problems and many conflicts with the people with whom she worked and socialized. She had three unstable marriages that ended in divorces. In 1999, at age 28, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes terrible belly pain and diarrhea.
Crohn’s Disease May Affect How a Person Relates to Other People
In her twenties, Doherty began to suffer the symptoms of Crohn’s disease: watery or bloody diarrhea, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, anemia, nausea and vomiting. Crohn’s disease is thought to be caused by inflammation, when your own immune system mistakes your cells for those of an invading germ and produces cells and chemicals that attack and try to destroy your own cells.
- You have more than 100 billion bacteria in your colon. Some of the colon bacteria are good for you and help you absorb food and fight infections, while some bad bacteria can punch holes in your intestines to cause what is called a “leaky gut.” This allows bacteria to pass through your intestines into your bloodstream.
- Your immune system responds by producing large amounts of the cells that eat and destroy bacteria, and proteins that attach to bacteria, dissolve their outer membranes and kill them.
- Usually your immune system kills the invading germs and then quiets down. However, the bad bacteria in your colon can keep punching holes in your intestinal linings, and allow more bacteria to keep entering your bloodstream, so your immune system stays active all the time. This is called inflammation.
- If your immune cells and proteins stay active all the time, they can use the destructive forces that are supposed to attack invading germs to attack your own healthy cells. For example, they can attack your joints to cause arthritis, they can damage your brain and nerves to make you tired all the time (chronic fatigue syndrome), and they can damage your own DNA to increase your risk for certain cancers.
- Your immune cells can cause your body to produce several inflammatory hormones that travel from your colon up your vagus nerve to your brain where it causes inappropriate behavior, such as arguing irrationally with people.
Depression and Anxiety
People with Crohn’s disease suffer from high rates of depression and anxiety. As many as 40 percent of Crohn’s disease patients are diagnosed with depression during their lives, and up to 30 percent with anxiety (Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, August, 2015;48:186-194). Patients with Crohn’s disease suffer a very high rate of mental illness and inability to get along with other people and they also have decreased diversity of colon bacteria that is associated with increased risk for inflammation and lower levels of the amino acid, tryptophan, a precursor to two well-known chemicals that affect mood and sleep: serotonin and melatonin. (Medicina (Kaunas), Apr 2023;59(4):682). David T. Rubin, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, thinks these abnormalities ultimately lead to a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with Crohn’s disease.
The Wikipedia article on Doherty lists her many difficulties at work. People magazine called her the “iconic Hollywood ‘bad girl’ of the nineties”. She had difficulty working with her co-stars, was reported to “party heavy”, was late on sets, and had several arguments with other workers.
Crohn’s Disease and Marital Discord
Crohn’s disease is associated with a high incidence of divorce (Medicine (Baltimore), 2024 Mar 15; 103(11): e37527). In 1993, Doherty was briefly engaged to Max Factor heir Dean Jay Factor, before he filed for a restraining order. In October 1993, she married Ashley Hamilton, the son of actors George Hamilton and Alana Collins, and they filed for divorce in April 1994. In 2002, she married Rick Salomon, and the marriage was annulled after nine months. In October 15, 2011, she married photographer Kurt Iswarienko and they separated in 2023.
Breast Cancer Diagnosis
In March 2015, Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer, which had spread to her lymph nodes. She was treated with drugs to block the female hormone, estrogen.
- In May 2016, one breast was removed along with the cancer, and she was treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
- On April 29, 2017, she told the press that her cancer was in remission.
- On February 4, 2020, she told reporters that her cancer had returned a year earlier, and she had stage four breast cancer that had spread to other parts of her body.
- In June 2023, she told the press that the cancer had spread to her brain and she was terminal.
- In November 2023, she said that the breast cancer had spread to her bones.
- In January 2024, she explained that her breast cancer cells had spread to her brain and that she was being treated with radiation and new chemicals that could pass from her bloodstream into her brain.
- In July 13, 2024, nine years after she was first diagnosed, she died from the breast cancer spreading to her brain.
Lessons from Shannen Doherty’s Sad Life and Death
When someone is mean or nasty to you for no obvious reason, always try to be nice to them. If you can’t be nice to them, try to avoid the situation. People guilty of irrational and offensive behavior often have a serious medical condition that interferes with their social relations. If you can direct them to get medical treatment, you may be able to help them tremendously. However, most of the time, you are better off avoiding conflict by staying away from them.
Shannen Doherty
April 12, 1971 – July 13, 2024
