If there’s something wrong that’s causing recurring issues (e.g. diarrhea), then taking medication to prevent diarrhea is fixing the symptom and obscuring the cause. It obscures any signal that might lead to identification of the cause while exposing you to the medication’s side-effects.
For example, someone with lactose intolerance (but who doesn’t know it yet) goes from “I notice that when I eat x, I get diarrhea for the next week” without medication, to “I eat what I want and experience no symptoms, but I do notice I have been feeling more tired and low in energy over the past few months” with medication.
If there’s something wrong that’s causing recurring issues (e.g. diarrhea), then taking medication to prevent diarrhea is fixing the symptom and obscuring the cause. It obscures any signal that might lead to identification of the cause while exposing you to the medication’s side-effects.
For example, someone with lactose intolerance (but who doesn’t know it yet) goes from “I notice that when I eat x, I get diarrhea for the next week” without medication, to “I eat what I want and experience no symptoms, but I do notice I have been feeling more tired and low in energy over the past few months” with medication.
How could one end up taking the correct medication without knowing first that they’re lactose intolerant?
I don’t see how that could happen. To end up taking lactose pills you need to know there is something wrong with your lactase tolerance in particular.