Better living by chemistry?

My grandmother didn't take any medication until after she had a stroke in her late 80s. She always shook her fist happily in praise to God and said: "Your confession is your possession!" when asked about her health. She seemed very healthy to me and lived until her early 90s - so perhaps that's why I've always been a bit adverse to taking medications of any kind. It's a family thing. We just never took pills.

Headache or Pain? No, I don't need that Advil or Tylenol. Twisted ankle? I'll just soak it in a warm bath or put an ice pack on it.

I never wanted to have to take a pill. Well, man makes plans and God laughs. I counted it up today and I now take 19 pills a day. A few of them are vitamins/supplements.. 

...but there are also a lot of prescription medications. Medications that aren't optional. Medications that I never wanted to take. Medications for health conditions that I could never have guessed I'd have and will have to treat for the rest of my life.

I was counting up the number of specialists I have following my care and it pretty much matched the number of the pill bottles above.. there are a few I haven't seen in a while, but the list below are doctor's I've seen within the past six months.

• Endicronologist
• Dermatologist
• Gastroenterologist
• Nephrologist
• Orthopedist 
• Psychiatrist
• Uro/Gynecologist

I have auto-immune disease(s) including Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Celiac and probably some related arthritis. 
Hypertension
Bipolar II
Chronic Kidney failure, grade III
Skin Cancer (but that's just chronic, too. Nothing metastatic or scary..just requires visits and ouchy skin removal)

I feel like my medical chart belongs to a 70 year old woman, not me. 

I refuse to think I'm "that sick". Every lab draw to monitor my kidneys or TSH levels just makes me want to go out and run that much longer, that much further. Except, I don't. 

I haven't been running regularly. I can go join my club-mates and run 3 miles easily enough--buy I'm not running regularly and I need to be consistent and get my mileage back up.
I need to go back and prove to myself that I'm healthy. That I'm strong. That my confession can be my possession. 
If I say "I'm a runner" that I'll be a healthy runner with a strong heart, lungs and low blood pressure. That I'll have energy despite the hypothyroidism. That I'll be able to stop taking at least one of the blood pressure medications. 

One less pill. I suppose that's the goal. If I run and build up my mileage, my goal is to need just one less pill.