Short Communication
Year: 2020 | Month: September | Volume: 10 | Issue: 9 | Pages: 164-169
Pharmacological Overtreatment and COVID-19 Deaths: Analysis of Comorbidity Data on the Elderly Population in Italy
Mirco Bindi
Clinical Researcher, Freelance since 2007,
Department of Clinical Oncology, University of Study Siena, General Hospital S. Maria della Scala, Italy
ABSTRACT
This article invites to further investigate the link between pharmacological overtreatment and COVID-19 related deaths in the elderly population. Unhealthy diets and environmental pollution negatively affect the gastrointestinal system leading to complications such as metabolic dysfunctions, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and microbiota dysbiosis. Such complications are important factors in explaining COVID-19 mortality in the elderly population. As highlighted by the Italian case, another important source of those complications is pharmacological overtreatment. This article analyses COVID-19 related comorbidity data in Italy by comparing data from selected Italian, American and Chinese case studies.
The gastrointestinal system is involved in Covid-19 due to the high presence of ACE-2 receptors and interactions with the Microbiota genome. Obesity induces a flattening of intestinal bacterial varieties and a rigidity of lipid cells’ membranes. In the US, obesity in over 65 was present in almost all deceased patients. Environmental pollution alters the body mineral system. In China, gastrointestinal symptoms were present in over 50% of patients. Older adults are more likely to suffer from long-lasting chronic diseases that break cell homeostasis on different functional levels. The co-occurrence of multiple pathologies often leads to pharmacological overtreatment, especially in the elderly. In Italy in particular, where most COVID-19 deaths were among the elderly, comorbidities are correlated with pharmacological overtreatment. Multiple drug prescriptions weaken the immune system and compromise the gastrointestinal system, perversely reinforcing the patient’s dependency on further drug prescriptions with the related toxic metabolic interactions.
This article highlights pharmacological overtreatment as an important area of investigation for studies assessing the impact of comorbidities in COVID-19 deaths, and for further research into effective COVID-19 treatment in the elderly.
Key words: Overtreatment, Obesity, Metabolic Dysfunction, Microbiome, Western food, Environmental Pollution