On my first day of medical school, the professor walked in and she said, "Despite my best efforts, I know that by the end of your four years here, 75% of what I will tell you will be wrong."

Sobering and terrifying for me on a daily basis.

Once again, I have found a great article written in the New York Times to help me with my thoughts.

Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?

Science and medicine are all to often looked at as "sterile" and absolute.  I would like to challenge this assumption.  Is Science really all that different from Religion?  Religions seek God and choose to do so through belief and faith, avoiding the need for rationality.  But what about science?  Is science really doing more than just looking for God (or The Answer, if you will.)  Instead of blind faith, scientist do this through rigid rationality, but they still MUST have faith.  Faith that the universe follows certain rules.  Faith that "The Answer" is worth finding.  Faith that knowledge will lead them to "salvation" when in actuality it is only going to lead them to more questions (not to different from religion, but that is another topic:)

But what does that mean for medicine?
well, it's back to medicine being an art.  Just like traditional art often reflects and commentates on religion, medicine reflects and commentates on science.
We take an immense amount of information and reflect our best guess as to the right answer.  But given the sheer complexity and almost infinite variables in our biology and our lives it's a miracle that we get anything correct.  Alas, modern medicine (for all it's faults) has been successful.  Average life span and quality of life have all risen over the last 50yrs, despite rapid declination of "healthy" lifestyles in America.
Do we know what makes someone healthy?  Well.... no.  but, we have a good guess and I'm confident our jobs as physicians are to make people comfortable and to help them enjoy their lives.  A job that we can do if people have a good relationship with their doctor and faith.
Faith of good intentions and the will to live and be healthy.  This is what makes us healthy.  (I hope.... :)