Mark Twain once said:
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so!”
Today I’ve decided to list just a few things that I thought I knew for sure when I
graduated from medical school but have since learned, it just ain’t so!
- Acid reflux is caused by producing too much stomach acid.
- Type 2 diabetes is an incurable and chronic, progressive disease.
- Cardiac stents and bypass surgery prevent future heart attacks.
- High cholesterol causes heart attacks.
- The root cause of cancer is genetic mutations.
- The United States has the best healthcare system in the world.
- Vaccines ended the deadly outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in the
early 20th century. - Vaccine injuries are very, very rare.
- People gain weight when they eat more calories than they “burn” off by
exercising. - “Alternative” medicine is quackery and not backed up by evidenced-based,
scientific data.
I’m pointing these things out to just remind us all that doctors don’t know it all, and
when a public health authority or highly credentialed doctor on TV proclaims something, there is a possibility that they are wrong. We must still use our own God-given ability to discern truth from counterfeit, especially when it comes to the healthcare decisions we make for ourselves and our families.
Charles Sydney Burwell, dean of Harvard Medical school in the 1940s once said to
the incoming class
“Half of what we are going to teach you is wrong, and half of it is right. Our problem is that we don’t know which half is which.”
How could this be? How could half of what I learned in medical school become
obsolete in a few years or even down right wrong? How can we produce such poor health outcomes in such a prosperous and advanced society? I believe it is because we have lost touch with the truth. We have put our trust in human ways and wisdom instead of seeking the wisdom of the One who created the human!
Our bodies are so complex and intricately designed, interacting with the 30 trillion
bacteria and 300 trillion viruses that live in us and on us every day. Our cells and DNA
are even impacted by thoughts we have moment to moment….and even thoughts that our grandmothers had when our mothers (and the egg that would someday become us) were being formed in our grandmother’s womb! Mind blowing stuff!
Is it any wonder that what we think we know for sure, that just ain’t so, can get us
into trouble?! Keep seeking the truth, righteousness and love. Prefect love casts out all fear, and the truth will set you free.
