Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath

Retired scientist. Grandma

[Dr.Nitin Yashas @drnitinyashas]

A #Doctor's Prayer . An Alterdoctor's Presentation . (https://t.co/xhbT5jUMrg) Based on Where the mind is without fear. Say no to #violenceagainstdoctors #SaveTheSaviour . so that the hands that heal do not bleed #CovidWarriors. #medtwitter https://t.co/pEejV8CPK8

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

I’ve realised the problem isn’t that people don’t have access to evidence.

It’s that evidence is competing against stories that are simpler, more emotional, and easier to remember.

For years I’ve spent my time explaining technologies: pesticides, GMOs, vaccines, chemicals, toxicology and risk.

But knowing the science isn’t enough.

If we can’t communicate it clearly, misinformation wins by default.

So I’m going to spend more time sharing something I’ve learned after years of engaging online:

How to communicate science.

Not just what the evidence says.
But why people reject it.

Why some explanations work while others fail.

How to simplify complex ideas without oversimplifying them.

Because science only changes minds when people understand it.

If you’re a scientist, engineer, doctor, teacher or anyone who cares about evidence follow me, I hope you’ll find something useful here.

[Dr. Priyam Bordoloi @DocPriyamMD]

A husband is Blood Type O.
His wife is Blood Type O.
Their newborn baby is Blood Type A.
​He instantly accuses her of cheating. According to basic high school genetics, two Type O parents having a Type A baby is 100% biologically impossible.

​But the doctor runs one rare test and proves he IS the biological father. How is this possible?

[Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath @PVmysore]

Our own rockstars, Dr. Sivaranjini and Dr Abby Phillips 💐💐🙏🙏

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Today is National Doctors Day in India. And the best day for me to discuss this very important paper. I will tell you why, at the end of this post.

The BMJ invited me to lead and write an invited editorial with a niche group of medical science communicators on an important topic.
https://t.co/kWPdRNSUbp

One of the most common arguments from the traditional medicine industry to prove the "legitimacy" of their (untested) products and (unscientific) practices in healthcare was that they had been "recognised" by WHO.

Large scale global meetings were conducted by WHO. And countries with emotional appeal towards traditional medical care, while others with political, religious and cultural stakes in the form of business oppurtunities were all part of these WHO-driven meetings were public funds were utilized to plan strategies to justify alternative medicine and promote it.

In this invited review, me, along with fantastic and brilliant medical science communicators - @CaulfieldTim , @Cath77777 , Prof. Xingshun Qi - and a patient-partner discuss, how, some WHO-related strategies, policies and endoresements are not science-related, but mostly politically and culturally motivated.

Please read here: https://t.co/kWPdRNSUbp

4 major points about the risks of rushing alternative medicine:

Lowered scientific tandards: The WHO is pushing to include traditional and alternative medicines into standard healthcare systems. However, they are dangerously lowering the scientific standards needed to prove these treatments actually work, allowing them to be endorsed before standard safety data exists.

Real risks to patients: Rushing to use unproven traditional remedies can lead to serious patient harm, including dangerous interactions with standard medications. Globally, herbal remedies are actually a more common cause of severe liver failure than prescription drugs.

Driven by politics, not science: The growing acceptance of alternative medicine is often driven by politics, nationalism, and economic interests rather than reliable science. Promoting these unproven practices risks spreading health misinformation and commercially exploiting vulnerable patients.

Safety must come first: While traditional practices are heavily relied upon globally, all patients deserve treatments that are fundamentally safe and effective. We must ensure alternative medicines pass the exact same rigorous scientific tests as conventional healthcare before endorsing them.

Today is National Doctors Day in India. Whether is is WHO or any such "legit" monolithic organization directly promoting misinformation and indirectly driving disinformation that can cause public health harm, as doctors, we do not look at the size of different Goliaths we meet. We fight like David, to protect - because that is what doctors who are really teachers swore - took an oath - that Primum non nocere...

..."first, do no harm."

We hope the WHO is listening. And so are the public.
Editorial: WHO’s misguided push for complementary and alternative medicine
https://t.co/kWPdRNSUbp

[Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath @PVmysore]

Excellent talk Dr Abby Phillips 🙏

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Something important.

Dear friends, my recently concluded talk is now available to watch on YouTube.

Before I started my session, I put out a disclaimer that alternative medicine practitioners seated in the audience might find my talk extremely triggering. This is one session I thought would be taken down by alternative medicine (Ayush) regulators in India...
...because I do not mince my words at all, about the massive public-fund wastage called Ayush.

For students who are planning to join Ayurveda or Homeopathy or such Ayush-related colleges for professional training... or those parents who are planning to send their children to Ayush - especially Ayurveda-related professional colleges to make a career out of it, this video will mess up your mind - and rightly so.

This is one video, which I would like everyone to watch, share and promote.... especially among those trying to get into alternative medicine colleges in India as a career option because they will be given the title of 'Dr".

Let us stop wasting our childrens future in India by sending them to a career of deceit and fraud - in alternative medicine - just for the legal (but never practical or logical) 'Dr' title.

Sacred Poisons | The Liver Doc | RenaiESSENSE'26
https://t.co/d0GkKVIpnr via @esSENSEGlobal

[Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath @PVmysore]

Great to see wider international recognition. 💐👍

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Dear friends, good morning!

For the BBC, Vikas Pandey, India Editor came all the way down to Kochi to spend time with me.
https://t.co/foWrFt9zsh

He visited my home, spoke to my family and friends, and then spent two whole days with me in my outpatient department at Rajagiri Hospital, watching me diagnose and treat patients and interact with their family.

This report is the culmination of that visit and I am very glad for this opportunity. I hope you will like this read.

Loved and loathed: The making of India's viral liver doctor
https://t.co/foWrFt9zsh

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

Loved and loathed: The making of India's viral liver doctor https://t.co/75wad7yyOv

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

Let’s talk about pesticides.
Because this debate is going off the rails.

Yes - pesticides can have environmental and health impacts.

Of course they can. Every biologically active substance does.

But what people don’t tell you is that risk is not about presence. It’s about dose, exposure, and context.

And that’s where the conversation tends to fall apart.
We are incredibly good today at detecting chemicals at vanishingly small concentrations.

But detection is not danger.

In Europe, pesticide residues in food are typically well below established safety thresholds, often by large margins, even under worst-case exposure scenarios.

Yet the public discussion rarely distinguishes between: hazard (what something could do in extreme conditions), and risk (what it actually does under real-world exposure).

Those are not the same thing.

Now let’s address the elephant in the room.
“If pesticides are safe, why is there so much controversy?”

Simple: uncertainty + perception + trade-offs.

Scientific studies do not always agree.

Consumers strongly associate “synthetic” with “danger,” regardless of measured risk.

Media narratives tend to amplify hazard rather than exposure.

That combination is powerful.
But here’s the part that is almost always missing.

Modern agriculture depends on crop protection.

Without it:
yields drop
crop losses increase
farming systems change fundamentally
and some practices (like regenerative agriculture) become much harder to maintain.

There are trade-offs here that don’t fit into a headline.

So where does that leave us?

Do pesticides have downsides?
Yes.

Are some uses problematic?
Also yes.

Should we continuously improve regulation, monitoring, and alternatives?
Absolutely.

But reducing the entire discussion to “chemicals = danger” is not science.

It’s a shortcut.

The real question isn’t:
“Are pesticides harmful?”
Everything can be, under the wrong conditions.

The real question is:
Compared to what?

Compared to:
lower yields
higher land use
increased mycotoxins
or less predictable food supply

That’s the actual decision space.
We don’t have a “pesticide problem.”

We have a risk literacy problem.

And until we fix that, we’ll keep arguing about the wrong thing.

[Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath @PVmysore]

Priyank Kharge @PriyankKharge - you need to meet and interact with Raju Parulekar

[Dr. Anshul Sadhale @AnshulGains]

Soya chunks is not a better protein source than eggs.

Eating eggs is your fundamental right.

[Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath @PVmysore]

Steam inhalation

[Dr. Priyam Bordoloi @DocPriyamMD]

6 hours until a movie date, and I have been completely taken out by an intense cold and sore throat since last night. (Which explains why my last two posts this morning were all about common colds and fevers! Haha)

​Right now, I am doing absolutely nothing but lying in bed.
​Told my mom and she confidently said she knows the exact cure: Azithromycin. I had to hide my frustration.

​Normally, I ride these out without meds, but today I am popping PCM + Phenylephrine + Chlorpheniramine Maleate (I know I will be drowsy but...) just to survive the evening. Sipping warm water and keeping my neck tightly wrapped in a muffler is also working surprisingly well.

​I am curious: What are your go to non-literature hacks for rapid, albeit temporary, cold relief?

[Dr.Sivaranjini @dr_sivaranjani]

This child has to get justice! The mother deserves answers!

She has gone to school and never came back alive! No answers to
1. Why there was a sedative in her blood
2. No answers to why the Cctv footage was missing
3. No answers to why the FIR was delayed
4. No answers to why the child died
#tripta9161
#justiceforTanishka #justiceforTanishka #justiceforTanishka #justiceforTanishka #justiceforTanishka
#justiceforTanishka #justiceforTanishka

@AmitShahOffice @AmitShah

[𝖢𝖺𝗍𝖺𝗅𝖾𝗒𝖺 @catale7a]

ISKCON is WRONG

Make eggs a regular part of every child's meal, for a fitter, smarter, stronger India🥚 🇮🇳

[Abhijit Majumder @abhijit_MLab]

Step 1: Talk to the actual nutritionists to prepare a balanced but inexpensive weekly menu.

Step 2: Call tender. Maintain pre-defined standard.

Step 3: Give the order.

Step 5: Monitor.

Additional Step: Never bring “Satvik” etc argument in a govt policy decision.

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Requesting the Government of India - honorable President @rashtrapatibhvn, @PMOIndia to withdraw the fourth highest civilian award bestowed on this quack - to maintain credibility and sanctity of such awards. This is shameful and atrocious. This woman's social media accounts are now being witheld because of legal demands in India due to cognizance of the public health danger she promotes.

In her Padma Award citation, the red-lined sections mentions "claims of" cure of serious illnesses and chronic diseases - this is an outright violation of Drugs and Magic Remedies Act. This woman should be chargesheeted and these "wild" claims investigated. Show some respect to the public you serve @PadmaAwards

Indian public in general maybe 'blind' health illiterates, but not all are! @arunachaltimes_

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

Hi, Chemist here.

Some people think chemistry is just about what atoms a molecule contains.

It isn’t.

It’s also about how those atoms are arranged in 3D space.

The active ingredient in a Vicks inhaler is L-methamphetamine.

Street meth is D-methamphetamine.

Same atoms.
Same bonds.

One subtle change in three-dimensional shape.

One clears your nose.
The other powerfully stimulates your brain.

That’s why chemists don’t judge molecules by their names.

Structure determines function.
Dose makes the poison.

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Important for public information!

I would like to update that the third paper on cow research, funded using India's public money under the SUTRA-PIC (Scientific Utilization through Research Augmentation - Prime Products from Indigenous Cows program) has undergone exhaustive post-publication peer review.

The paper was published in Biochemical Engineering Journal this year. The authors are from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dhanbad (Jharkhand).

This is the paper:
https://t.co/9niHoCSvEO This study was done in Jharkhand and the total amount of public money given was INR 36,16,859/- (~38500 USD).

As per the study, the researchers transformed ordinary cow dung into a specialized carbon material that highly effectively soaks up toxic chromium pollution from water. Instead of throwing away this metal-filled waste, they successfully reused it to build a working, long-lasting energy storage device called a supercapacitor.

Well, they did not. They made it all up.

Here is a plain-language summary of the fatal flaws found in the paper:

🟡The authors claim their material successfully absorbed a massive amount of toxic chromium—roughly 22% of its total weight. However, their own chemical scan shows the final product contains almost zero chromium (0.09%), making their main conclusion physically impossible.

🟡After testing this material in a battery setup that contains absolutely zero chromium, the reported amount of chromium inside the material mysteriously multiplied by 47 times (from 0.09% to 4.24%). Elements cannot spontaneously generate out of thin air, which strongly indicates the data was fabricated.

🟡The fundamental thermodynamic math used to prove how the material captures pollutants is entirely broken. The reported numbers for energy, heat, and entropy literally do not equal each other when plugged into standard physics equations, heavily suggesting the results were manually made up.

🟡The paper claims hard statistical proof that one type of cow dung is superior to another, but the actual difference between them is a fraction of a percent and mathematically insignificant. Furthermore, the statistical "p-values" they reported are mathematically incorrect for the tests they claim to have run.

And one more point which requires professional image manipulation software for checking - which me or the helping team did not have access to)...

🟡The photos intended to show the physical "coated" battery electrodes appear to be digitally faked. The frayed edges and tape cuts match the uncoated metal so perfectly that it looks like solid black boxes were simply photoshopped over the original image (this is only a basic allegation, needs confirmation).

With this review, I am stopping further such analysis on these so-called cow-research science papers glorifying Indian tradition. These "researchers" and "scientists" should be ashamed of themselves. Real science requires truthful validation, not beggarly applause or promotions from the hands of the "agenda-driven" masters that feed you.

All three papers criticisms have been uploaded to Pub-Peer and official notifications sent to the respective journals and their research integrity teams. Two papers are already under investigation by respective journal.
Please see here: https://t.co/C5cHlJZUas and here: https://t.co/bhNYt0khLv

The science community in India must fight tooth and nail to prevent AYUSH pseudoscience infiltration into their revered STEM institutions. This is not a good thing, moving forward.

[Dr.Sivaranjini @dr_sivaranjani]

When people are asking for ORS, eRZL is being given. It is being marketed as the new form of ORSL. ORSL for 2 decades was ORS for our people, and @Kenvue wants to still continue with the same memory and the same unethical business plan jeopardizing the health and lives of crores of Indian children and adults! A new fridge is being given to the pharmacies which mentions that eRZL is the new form of ORSL.
This is gross violation of FSSAI order. This is gross violation of Delhi High Court order.
Every year, more than one lakh children die due to diarrhoea, in India. ORS(WHO RECOMMENDED FORMULA) is a life saver. It's very disheartening and angering to see
1. @fssaiindia giving permission to eRZL (looking exactly same as the high sugar ORSL), inspite of the harm caused to children for 2 decades, and inspite of us literally begging to not do it.
2. @Kenvue, your Indian subsidiary seems to be the most unethical company here. It doesn't seem to care for the lives of our Indian children! eRZL is being handed as ORS now. It's a shame!
3. The president of @iapindia, I hv literally begged u to ask Kenvue to rebrand in such a way that the new branding doesn't resemble the erstwhile high sugar ORSL, and instead you release a position paper influenced by Kenvue! The children of India vs Kenvue, and u chose Kenvue.

Dear citizens of India, history is repeating! I hv taken up this issue legally, but that's going to take years, as u all know.

It's time that u stand up for the children of India once again, and ensure history doesn't repeat!

@MoHFW_INDIA pls ensure only CDSCO approved drugs(ORS) are available in the pharmacies and not FSSAI approved beverages! This seems to be the only way to protect the children of this country

#ORSL #eRZL #WHOrecommendedformulaORS #diarrhoealdeaths #India #JohnsonJohnson #Kenvue #misbranding #misleadingmarketing

[Dr (Mrs) P. Viswanath @PVmysore]

Is this true or fake