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.