Comment by tenzing

I have a similar viewpoint; over a decade ago, I had a nuisance tendon issue and went to a specialist who recommended surgery.

The surgery had a risk of serious, life-long consequence if it went wrong. He said that if I can live with the tendon issue, we can delay surgery indefinitely... so we delayed.

A month later, I stopped doing a certain workout at the gym, which resolved the issue within days. No need for surgery at all.

I do think that some specialists can be so focused on their speciality (i.e. surgery) that they don't think outside of that paradigm (try a different workout at the gym), and it's up to the patient to effectively shop around to get the best advice.