There is a cartoon of a doctor mopping a wet floor and someone asking, “For how long do we have to clean this up?” The doctor says, “Forever.” The other says, “Why don’t we just shut off the faucet?”

Doctors keep prescribing medication because they don’t believe their patients will ever change their habits, the underlying cause of the problem. They’re trained to do sick care, not health care.

While we are still preoccupied with containing COVID-19, the next coronaviruses are already incubating, if not already unleashed.

In a clip from “60 Minutes Australia,” environmental and human rights investigator Steven Galster, exposed “sleeping time bombs,” as wildlife markets similar to Wuhan’s continue to operate in Bangkok, among other places worldwide:

“These animals are never together in the wild and so are vulnerable to viruses carried by each other. Their extreme stress, which diminishes their immune systems, adds to the potential of these viruses crossing over to humans zoonotically (across species) during the handling process at markets, including during slaughter. We need to not just shut down the markets in China, you need to shut them down in other places, too. Otherwise it’s going to expand or recur.”

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) is another animal virus from bats spread to civet cats and humans, again in China. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) came from camels. Ebola is not a coronavirus, but it, too, is animal-borne, with bats or primates as possible sources. Bird flu is a virus that can infect birds, humans and other animals.

What should we already know by now? The World Health Organization cautions people visiting farms, markets, barns, or other places with animals to practice general hygiene. But how about not bothering these animals altogether? Industries and cultures will need to adjust, but as Galster put it, “Mother Nature’s revenge” is already forcefully course-correcting us anyway.

Lifestyle changes

While COVID-19 initially ravaged senior citizens, anyone with underlying health conditions is just as vulnerable. These include chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic heart disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, chronic neurological conditions, diabetes, HIV/ AIDS, steroids or chemotherapy and being seriously overweight (a body mass index of 40 or above).

We can’t do anything about our age, but we can do something about preventing and even reversing lifestyle diseases that put us at risk for all coronaviruses.

Dean Ornish, M.D., the father of lifestyle medicine, was the first to prove that comprehensive lifestyle changes can reverse even severe coronary heart disease and improve chronic conditions, without drugs or surgery.

His latest book “Undo It!: How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases” talks about how we should “eat well, live more, stress less, love more.”

Ornish talked about how physicians are trained to treat heart disease, diabetes, prostate and breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, etc. as different diseases. “But they’re not. They’re the same disease manifesting in different ways because they all share the same underlying biological mechanisms: oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, changes in the microbiome, telomeres and gene expression, angiogenesis and so on. Each mechanism is influenced by what we eat, how we respond to stress, how much exercise and how much love and support we have,” he said.

Reversing all diseases

“It’s not like there’s one diet for reversing heart disease, and a different diet to reverse the next chronic disease; it’s the same for reversing all. It’s also why we see many people suffering from several of these diseases at the same time.”

He had debated with Dr. Atkins many times before the latter died of heart disease. “Atkins was right that people were eating too many refined carbs. But he failed to substitute with carbs in their natural, unrefined state. These fill you up before you get so many calories and are high fiber so they’re low on the glycemic index,” said Ornish.

“The Atkins diet is the same as the keto diet, the paleo diet and other repackaged Atkins spinoffs. It keeps resurrecting because people like to hear good news about their bad habits, that eating meat is good for you, even if it’s not.”

Ornish added, “On a whole food plant-based diet, you can eat whenever you’re hungry, you can eat until you’re full, there’s no deprivation, and you still lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life.

“Going WFPB is crucial instead of just ‘going vegan’ because you can still be a fat, unhealthy vegan and get sick if you continue to eat high fat, salt, sugar and processed foods. If you’re trying to lose weight, eliminate oils; it’s 100-percent fat.” —CONTRIBUTED