>I keep thinking the more medical science "discovers", the worse off we are. Except for those who are psychotic or actually ill, I say pitch the body chemistry altering drugs down the toilet. Then start enjoying your life along with your family and friends. So I may die 5 years earlier. As long as the years were enjoyable instead of somewhat enjoyable or miserable/tolerable, I'll gladly sacrifice miserable and tolerable for enjoyable and 5 less years. Heck, if I turn into a miserable old coot, my family may wish me an early demise, and my friends... well what friends?

It depends on what "ill" is. Clearly, the pharm industry likes to define more and more "disorders" which can then be "treated".

On the other hand I know a couple of people who were not obviously "ill" who could have been helped a lot by the right drugs:

- A gorgeous, spectacularly fit professional aerobics instructor. Her father died at 42 from a heart attack. At 26, she had a heart attack and had to undergo a triple bypass. Her father had a high cholesterol "setpoint", hers was extremely high. This was 20+ years ago when cholesterol drugs were much less available/effective.

- An acquaintance pooh-poohed high blood pressure for years, and in his mid-50s had a near-fatal stroke. For the last 15 years he's been missing a couple of layers in the cognitive/speech "stack", paralysis on one side, sensitivity to sound etc. etc. He used to be a high-level project manager at a major engineering firm. He remembers that, too. All for the want of blood-pressure medication costing literally pennies per day.