Require medical education programs that receive US government funding to include courses in DE-prescribing medication as a counterbalance to the current allopathic, pharma-captured approach of prescribing long-term medications for chronic condition management, and more long-term medications for the side effects from the previously prescribed medications.
More than 90% of medical expenditures are for chronic diseases, and recurring, lifelong pharmaceutical use is a large share of that multi-trillion dollar annual cost. Annual COVID-19 boosters and lifelong Ozempic/Wegovy for 12-year-olds are just recent examples of recommended “best practices” that just so happen to drive billions to pharma manufacturers, and which medication use was unheard of five years ago, and none of which has reduced disease severity, or increased life expectancy or health-span. We can do better.
Notwithstanding lack of visibility in medical education, there already has been quite a bit of scholarly work on de-prescribing medications in connection with regaining health through lifestyle changes. For example, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella et al. published this work in 2022, Adapting Medication for Type 2 Diabetes to a Low Carbohydrate Diet - PubMed, the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners has published relevant guidelines, Clinical Guidelines - Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, and most recently, Dr. Timothy Noakes, et al., published a textbook, Ketogenic: The Science of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction in Human Health, which provides clinical practice guidelines for disease reversal.
At present, the government funds medical education through residency programs under Medicare, research funding through NIH and other federal agencies, scholarships and loan forgiveness, and various university grants. That being the case, the government (primarily through Executive Agencies without additional congressional action) should condition all funding on having medical education programs include courses and practical experience DE-prescribing medication in conjunction with addressing the root cause of chronic illnesses. Such an approach would have a huge ROI economically and in terms of avoiding pain and suffering vs. the current standard of care.