#393 ‒ AMA #85: A guide to medications and supplements: determining what to take, what to skip, and how to know if they're working for you

Effective medical and supplement interventions require shifting from vague goals like "better health" to actionable, measurable problem definitions. A rigorous approach involves defining specific metrics, thresholds, and timelines—such as lowering ApoB from 130 to 60 mg/dL within six months—to avoid the pitfalls of impulse decision-making. Interventions should be classified by their intended "job"—disease treatment, symptom relief, risk reduction, or optimization—to establish the necessary evidence threshold and risk tolerance. While disease treatment demands high-quality evidence and justifies greater risk, optimization strategies often lack objective validation and require heightened skepticism. By prioritizing hard outcomes or well-validated surrogate markers over mechanistic claims, individuals can distinguish between genuine therapeutic benefits and speculative, potentially harmful, or ineffective practices.