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“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein. Infectious Diseases doctors van der Horst and Wohl discuss life balance while riding early one morning near Hillsborough, N.C.


Written by Nathan Clendenin for UNC Health Care

In the almost two years that we’ve been producing the real doctors, real people series, I’ve met so many wonderful and talented people. It continues to boggle my mind how a doctor can do his or her job at the highest level, spend time with family and friends, deal with unexpected curve balls from life and have time leftover for anything else.

The world-famous physicist Albert Einstein once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” This month, we decided to focus on the question: ‘How does one juggle everything in life and maintain balance?’

Our two subjects are from the Infectious Diseases division of UNC Hospitals and researchers wth the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases. Dr. Charles van der Horst, a veteran HIV/AIDS specialist, has treated patients since the onset of the epidemic. Early in his career, he mentored Dr. David Wohl, who also entered the field of Infectious Diseases specifically to research HIV/AIDS. Over their years together at UNC, they’ve developed a professional relationship that extends beyond the hospital and into their mutual love of cycling.

We took an early morning ride with them out near Maple View Farms in Hillsborough. What a ride! Watch the video to see what they say about achieving balance in life. Interesting to note is that it’s rumored Albert Einstein came up with his most famous work, the Theory of Relativity, while riding his bicycle!