[angrais]

The challenge with such recommendations is that the reader must be able to understand which medicine can be safely skipped. I do not believe most people can make this choice safely.

For many conditions, such as arthritis, taking daily medicine is required and skipping that would decrease quality of life dramatically.

However, if you've a sore head then potentially skipping some medicine is fine.

>> With a very few exceptions, pharma is about temporarily soothing symptoms while doing nothing for the underlying disease.

I think you're quite mistaken. Pharma is about improving the quality of life and health outcomes for the patient. Some diseases cannot be magically fixed with drugs, e.g., Parkinson's, etc.

[monoideism]

> such as arthritis

Which arthritis med, exactly? So many have been pulled off the shelf by the FDA.

But Levadopa for Parkinson’s (which I’m highly likely to get if I live long enough), and its newer analogues, may be one of the few worth the trade. Grandparents on both sides w/Parkinson’s.

99% of the other drugs are not worth the tradeoffs, for most people.

[angrais]

When I said Arthritis I actually meant Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), where Sulfasalazine is the recommended and effective drug treatment. I don't know much about osteoarthritis (OA) so cannot comment on it.

>> But Levadopa for Parkinson’s (which I’m highly likely to get if I live long enough), and its newer analogues, may be one of the few worth the trade. Grandparents on both sides w/Parkinson’s.

I'm very sorry to hear that. Are you taking any "precautions" to (potentially) delay or mitigate the onset of Parkinson's, e.g., healthy eating, exercise, etc? Do you think knowing what you know has had an impact on how you lead your life currently (#Yolo)?

Note: I'm a researcher in an adjacent field (digital health) and so please don't take anything above as medical fact.