Why did you have Placebo effect?
Becoz of another cognitive bias
Survivorship bias
"We tend to focus on thos things that survived a process and overlook ones that failed"
This happens when you see/read many testimonials on Siddha working in others who also suffer from biases 2/
These two biases create another bias.
Blind Spot bias
We dont think we have bias, but see it in others more than ourselves
So when science tells you that there is no evidence to demonstrate any benefit of Siddha in treatment of Covid, you consider scientists as biased 3/
But are scientists biased?
Yes, they can be.
So how do they correct for it?
Becoz science is not biased.
"Science is an inherently probabilistic endeavor.
It shows us what is most likely true given the current evidence, not what absolutely is true." 4/
So what does science say about Siddha?
That it is pseudoscience
Why pseudoscience?
Becoz it is unreasonable
Siddha does not follow a scientitic method, but culture
Relies on belief tat earth, water, fire, air, sky – are in food, "humours" of human body
This is illogical 5/
Now coming back to Siddha improving Covid.
It most likely did not. In mild covid, patients improve without even modern medicine prescriptions and only symptoms care
We do not have quality evidence through rigorous clinical studies that Siddha does anything to any disease
6/
So promoting Siddha for Covid or any other disease per say, is currently not in the best interest of public health
One must show refrain
Here is an infographic on 'cognitive biases'
Breaking: Our exhaustive paper on liver toxicity of various herbs/ plants used in Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) systems of alternative medicine is out now (free to read)
with @arifhussaintm
This paper was initially an invited paper by an Indian journal. The reviewers and Editorial board rejected the "invited" paper because they thought the paper was "too critical" of traditional, cultural and religious [unscientific] aspects of healthcare practice among Indian community and feared backlash from the alternative systems regulatory body (Ayush Ministry) and Ayurveda and Homeopathy practitioners & their organizations of they accepted their own "invited" paper.
The Indian medical science community is now hostage to it's unscientific past due to a deepening lack of scientific temperament among doctors, worrying knee-jerk response style assault from the alternative medicine industry/practitioners/regulators and general apathy towards patients & public health. It's disappointing.
Since they were spineless to publish our factual paper, we sent this to a neutral journal for peer review (which is got through) and paid open access publication fee, so that everyone could read it for free.
Please read and share this important paper which educates physicians on herbal liver toxicity from seemingly benign plant sources which they need to be aware of.
The subsequent posts also highlights infographics summary of various toxic Ayush-based botanicals that are increasingly reported to harm public and patients.
Thanks in advance, and I hope doctors in India start fearlessly respecting science rather than intentionally embracing ignorance & selfishly covering up themselves in a safety bubble, thereby endangering public health in the process.journals.lww.com/md-journal/ful…
Continued: Summary on Tinospora cordifolia (Giloy)
Continued: Summary on Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha)
The classical response from Ayurveda practitioners or Ayurveda sympathizers (and other alternative medicine practitioners) when debating the role of alternative medicine in healthcare is to "go and study Ayurveda or read Ayurveda" to understand it better. This is a logical fallacy, a kind of escapism. Dr. Kanojia here, has not read the Ayurvedic texts, which is why, he keeps fielding for Ayurveda.
India has a 5 year teaching course for students for Bachelors in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery called BAMS.
I have the complete syllabus collection of all curriculum approved text books of Ayurveda in my home library. I spent almost two years reading every single book taught in BAMS syllabus.
Classical Ayurvedic teaching material is rich in misogyny, nauseatingly magical thinking, extreme levels of animal cruelty and meat eating, primitive observations, primal herbal and interventional therapies and principles of practice based on obsolete humoral and elemental theories of disease formation and diagnosis.
For example:
For treatment of large tumors, honey was applied over the growth, flies are allowed to lay eggs on the tumor and the maggots are allowed to eat the tumor from within. The residual tumor is then burned off.
For women in obstructive labor, the hips, buttocks are beaten, the lady is made to inhale smoke from burned snake skin and feathers are used for tickling.
For the treatment of tuberculosis (there was no germ theory at the time, but descriptions of emaciation in tuberculosis was observed) the patient is fed herbs and made to drink alcohol (alcohol is in fact one of the risk factors for tuberculosis as we know now) and cure is achieved by massages from "beautiful ladies."
For treatment of seizures in children, demons were considered the cause (they still teach this in the BAMS curriculum) and such demonic possessions were slayed using prayers and chants.
For treatment of diabetes (there was no knowledge of actual diabetes, it was called Premeha and there were different types of Premeha based on diet/ activity, semen quality and based on "doshas". Ayurvedic texts describe some of the causes of "diabetes" to eating meat and drinking milk. There are nearly 20 types of diabetes described in Ayurveda - which of course, is nonsense.
For treatment of sexual disorders, testicles of various types of animals were boiled with herbs and the formulation applied or drank to increase sexual prowess and to "have sex with a 1000 women."
The bottom line is, if you actually read/study the Ayurvedic texts, you'll realize how completely absurd & pseudoscientific the whole system is and you'll never vouch for it again. I am sharing some excerpts from BAMS textbooks in the subsequent post.
Do not send your children to study BAMS and of course, do not read these texts. I did, so that you dont have to. It will take you to a dark place.
1/ Ok some friends sent me private messages that I was harsh on Rachit. They feel that I have to correct Rachit's presumed "Busting" of my tweet content by "Busting" his tweet content on mine. So here goes. Stay for the real science friends.
2/ Rachit says creatine is FOR ALL but gives no evidence to back his claims and goes on to copy paste biochemistry of creatine from a Google search.
International Society of Sports Nutrition position specifies creatine use in sports & athletics only... ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
3/
...and not in others. There is some inconclusive data in patients with muscular dystrophy and aging population, but they are not solid recommendations. In fact all recommendations are in training professionals only and not otherwise. jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…
Collateral damage. Local creatine dealer feeling the heat.
A Gym-bro tries to debunk the factual details I have provided (he claims "everything busted") in the tweet but instead, lands head-on, in his own epic sh*t.
I cant even understand where these science-illiterates get the brains & guts (I know they have the balls, because their… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…