100% of What I Learned in Medical School Was Wrong

I remember when I graduated from medical school, the dean told our class, “What we have just taught you was the most up-to-date information about medicine. Unfortunately, 50% of what we taught you was wrong. Your job is to figure out which 50% was wrong.”

I remember feeling stunned  at the Dean’s admission. Now, 26 years later, I think the dean was too conservative. Now I feel that approximately 75% of what I was taught was wrong.

In my training, I was taught that high cholesterol was a risk factor for heart disease. Furthermore, I was taught that a high triglyceride level was also a risk factor for heart disease. It was drilled into every medical student’s head that a lower cholesterol was always better than a higher one.