wrote..

... I believe most people would be shocked to see just how many meds the typical person is taking daily. Even the young. It is mind-boggling ...

I've had a theory since the mid-90's. (Disclaimer, I am not a doctor, I have zero medical experience or training), however, that said, I've strongly suspected that most of the people who when taking their "daily" pills look like they spilled a bag of skittles on the table, that if you took the time to run down the specific reason for each and every one, you'd likely find that the vast majority are to treat a side effect symptoms of one of the others.

And the cherry on top is that in many cases, the "origin" issue may not even exist any more.