No doubt, roughly 70% of chronic conditions are self induced (lifestyle, diet, etc.) Probably similar numbers for cancer, heart disease.
And many of those conditions can be modified or reversed with changes.
Like you, I see a lot of folks with multiple meds, especially mental health related (anxiety, depression).
Many conditions are not self induced, genetic or caused by environmental situations.
And I often shake my head but also realize too many prefer to take a medication vs making lifestyle changes.
I also have a number of clients with arthritis and other types of inflammation caused pain. In another 30 years or so, you may be in the same boat. Just sayin'
So don't cast stones . . .
The medical community should take some of the blame. Personal experience here. Not long after I turned 40 I thought I should probably have my cholesterol checked. I have two uncles who had heart issues. Granted, they are both very overweight and smoked. You've seen me, I'm nowhere near overweight. I'm a fit guy. I'm active and eat fairly well.
Anyway, my cholesterol test revealed my cholesterol was very high (307 total cholesterol). HDL was good, but LDL was high. The doc immediately prescribed a statin. I told her, "let's wait on that...maybe I did this to myself and can undo it". I made some minor changes and went back two months later and it was down to 264. I was with Kaiser at the time and received an email from the doc and she said she just realized I never got the prescription filled and I needed to start taking it.
I replied back with my same comment above and told her I had made some minor changes and it came down some. I'll make some additional changes and hopefully get it down more. She replied saying that it was impossible for me to get it down from that level without medication. I replied with the following two words:
Challenge Accepted
Two months later when I had it checked, total cholesterol was down to 225 and LDL was in normal range.
She emailed me and said "whatever you are doing, keep doing it".
The answer for many doctors is to grab the prescription pad.
What I also discovered in my research is our bodies generate about 80% of the cholesterol and we control the other 20% through diet, exercise and other outside factors such as stress. My body just generates more than average so I have to work extra hard to keep it down.
But people are to blame as well. I was sharing the above story with a friend and he kinda laughed and said he just takes a pill for it so he doesn't have to watch what he eats or do much exercise.
The pharmaceutical industry has done a good job of training the masses and buying the docs and politicians.