Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu
and popular social media doctor Cyriac Abby Philips, aka â
theliverdoc
â locked horns in a latest X (earlier Twitter) battle. It all started with a recent X post shared by a user named Sunny River. This post outlined the importance of grounding or walking barefoot and shared images to explain the science behind the same.
The X user wrote: âGrounding is one of the most powerful yet underrated health practices that exist.
It improves literally every function in your body, it's completely FREE, and it outperforms 99% of supplements. The Science of Grounding:â
What Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu said about grounding
Showing support for this post, Vembu replied with his own experience. He said: âI have been walking barefoot in the farm for close to a year now. This thread talks about the health benefits of "grounding" - walking barefoot.It is easy to do, doesn't cost anything and isn't harmful - our rural people have been doing it for ages. So I reasoned why not try it and I got so used to it by now I don't even think about it. Try it!â
How 'theliverdoc' contradicted Vembu's claims
Contradicting Vembuâs claim, Cyriac Abby Philips who is popular as the âtheliverdocâ said:
âGrounding or Earthing (via bare-foot walking) is a pseudoscientific practice. It has no clinically relevant benefits. There are a lot of absolutely nonsense wasteful studies on this topic that have contaminated the published literature. The act of grounding refers to a physical connection between the electrical frequencies of the human body with that of Earth, Just like the sun constantly provides us with energy and vitamins, the Earth too is a source of subtle energy that contributes to optimum health. None of that is true, there are no 'electrical frequencies' involved, the Sun does none of the things that are claimed, nor does the ground. "
He also shared links to medical journals that also claim earthing or grounding are âdubious medical claims exploiting weaknesses in the system,â and even include ârisks of foot infections.â
âIndian healthcare's biggest challenge lies not in teaching people critical-thinking skills, but in educating and training the common person how to avoid health-illiterate boomer uncles like Mr Vembu,â Philips added.
Replying to the criticism, Vembu shared another post to warn users to stay away from arrogant doctors like Philips. He said: "Health illiterate boomer uncle. Stay away from arrogant doctors - that is the best health tip I can give anyone. The best doctors I know are all uniformly humble because they know just how extremely complex the human body is and how much the body and mind are intertwined. They also know accepted medical wisdom keeps changing so they keep an open mind. And great doctors don't do stupid name-calling about people they don't know.â
That didnât end the debate as Philips got back at Vembu with another post. Philips wrote: âSridhar Uncle, maybe this is a more humble way of telling you, don't post content you have no idea about? Leave doctors and health workers to do what they have to do, including demystifying misinformation from science illiterates like yourself. Stick to Zoho and your tech stuff? Is that too much to ask? Or was that not humble enough? Leave healthcare to those who are trained in it.
Health illiterates like you, peddling pseudoscience to your large followers are increasing the workload on practising doctors like me [who are exhaustingly trying to improve public health education], by adding more fuel to the misinformation fire that is already lit high by other health influenzas across this country.
Do us all a favour and âIf you find yourself in a hole, stop digging,â because clearly, your âhealthcare postsâ are absolute garbage.
And also, do wear some light footwear. It helps better than being barefoot. Here is some evidence on it - a study in the geriatric populace (which may be of use to you) and which I HUMBLY submit. Was that soft enough for you? Hope I did not make you cry.
https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7057536/
STOP PEDDLING NONSENSE.â
The X user wrote: âGrounding is one of the most powerful yet underrated health practices that exist.
What Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu said about grounding
How 'theliverdoc' contradicted Vembu's claims
Contradicting Vembuâs claim, Cyriac Abby Philips who is popular as the âtheliverdocâ said:
He also shared links to medical journals that also claim earthing or grounding are âdubious medical claims exploiting weaknesses in the system,â and even include ârisks of foot infections.â
âIndian healthcare's biggest challenge lies not in teaching people critical-thinking skills, but in educating and training the common person how to avoid health-illiterate boomer uncles like Mr Vembu,â Philips added.
Replying to the criticism, Vembu shared another post to warn users to stay away from arrogant doctors like Philips. He said: "Health illiterate boomer uncle. Stay away from arrogant doctors - that is the best health tip I can give anyone. The best doctors I know are all uniformly humble because they know just how extremely complex the human body is and how much the body and mind are intertwined. They also know accepted medical wisdom keeps changing so they keep an open mind. And great doctors don't do stupid name-calling about people they don't know.â
That didnât end the debate as Philips got back at Vembu with another post. Philips wrote: âSridhar Uncle, maybe this is a more humble way of telling you, don't post content you have no idea about? Leave doctors and health workers to do what they have to do, including demystifying misinformation from science illiterates like yourself. Stick to Zoho and your tech stuff? Is that too much to ask? Or was that not humble enough? Leave healthcare to those who are trained in it.
Health illiterates like you, peddling pseudoscience to your large followers are increasing the workload on practising doctors like me [who are exhaustingly trying to improve public health education], by adding more fuel to the misinformation fire that is already lit high by other health influenzas across this country.
Do us all a favour and âIf you find yourself in a hole, stop digging,â because clearly, your âhealthcare postsâ are absolute garbage.
And also, do wear some light footwear. It helps better than being barefoot. Here is some evidence on it - a study in the geriatric populace (which may be of use to you) and which I HUMBLY submit. Was that soft enough for you? Hope I did not make you cry.
https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7057536/
STOP PEDDLING NONSENSE.â
