Tarika Vijayaraghavan

Cellular Agriculture Enthusiast | Molecular Biologist | she/her. 🔬

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

Quackery over logic 👍

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Great news for 'doctors' including oncologists and hepatologists.

The Government of India is preparing to start a new medical educational course.

Doctorate of Medicine or DM (equivalent of advanced fellowship) in the field of Ayurveda.

This degree will be offered for Ayurveda practitioners after their specialization (MD training) - they can choose advanced specialization in oncology (cancer management), hepatology (caring for advanced and complex liver disease), geriatrics (specialized care for the elderly), psychiatry (management of mental health disorders) and orthopedics (complex diseases of bones and joints).

But Ayurveda practitioners themselves say that this is a bad move. Why?

Because there is nothing to specialize in Ayurveda. The whole of Ayurveda is based on texts written 2000 years ago that has not changed at all.

For examples:
- for cancer, they teach application of honey over the tumor where flies come and lay eggs and maggots will eat the tumor from within.

- for alcohol-related disorders, the treatment was to spend time with sexy voluptous women and drinking light wine, while leeches will suck out bad blood from your system.

- for manic-depressive disorder, the patient was placed inside an isolated well and then beaten with sticks made from feathers of birds and forced to inhale smoke from burned snake skin.

- for foreign body in bone, the treatment was to tie a horse or donkey to the foreign body and make the animal pull it out.

- for elderly patients, to become healthier and well, they were advised to have sex with younger women.

[These are all mentioned in the classical Ayurveda texts - Caraka Samhita, Ashtanga Hrydaya, Susruta Samhita - you can read about it, some versions are free online]

I have never seen a more insecure group of people than Ayurveda policy makers and Ayurveda practitioners. Instead of improving science-based educational infrastructure and catering to primary care and improving specialists care by and large, they meddle in these absolutely wasteful activities that destroy the nations scientific temper, medical care quality and global-stage credibility.

This government may be excellent at winning elections and especially hearts of brainless people, but they are the worst that has happened to this country since the British.

Ayurveda practitioners raise concern over DM courses
https://t.co/FzkJrscBjw

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Time and again Astrologists prove that Astrology is horseshit.

[James Raftery 🇮🇪🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ :flag-you-hate: @james_raftery]

The world looking at the USA #USAElection2024

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

100%

[Elliot Swartz @elliotswartz]

First ever tasting of #cultivatedmeat in Thailand, hosted by @AlephFarms.

For a variety of reasons, SE Asia is likely to become a future hub of cultivated meat manufacturing

https://t.co/ZCVZxkI3xv

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Literally no child deserves Ayurveda or Homeopathy or any such alternative medicine. Don't make them pay the price for your superstitions.

[Elliot Swartz @elliotswartz]

Arguably the best time to start a #cultivatedmeat startup is now, as the knowledge foundation is much stronger & many roads paved. New startups have already demonstrated they can lower costs and achieve regulatory approval with much less capital needed:

https://t.co/fWVJG1YEnU

[Elliot Swartz @elliotswartz]

In the U.S., individual states are banning and criminalizing the sale of cultivated meat

In S. Korea, the government fast-tracked its regulatory approval pathway and is investing millions to foster commercialization.

Survey data suggest up to 90% of S. Korean consumers would be open to trying cultivated meat

https://t.co/3QoFKO7UWF

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Solar Eclipse 2024 - a thread 🧵

1. Cleveland by Gabe Wasylko

[Aditi Chaubey @aditichaubey]

Let's go Buffalo!!!

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

@aditichaubey Oh my God that's insane! I saw 99% coverage here in Toronto!!

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

In March 2024, Patanjali Ayurveda apologized to the Supreme Court of India for misguiding the public by putting out misleading advertisements on medicinal cures of their herbal products.

Exactly a year ago, in March 2023, we published real world evidence on their products along with other Ayurvedic formulations, that caused severe liver injury in stable cirrhosis patients, of whom 42% passed away due to progressive liver failure.

The patients took these herbal supplements based on blind promotions & advertisements of "immunity boosting." Many such "herbal mumbo-jumbo" were also promoted by the central Government through the Ayush Ministry. The Government did not regulate potentially toxic, public health endangering interventions.

In a better world and a rational society, the company officials would be in jail because their misleading advertisements cost lives. An ideal Government would dissociate themselves from these frauds and make them accountable.

The whole "immunity boosting" fiasco in #COVID19 was utilized to an extreme by the charlatans at the helm of Patanjali Ayurveda. They raked in money at the cost of defrauding the public by promoting "ineffective cures."

Our analysis of these products, including Patanajali Ayurveda's flagship Covid-19 quack formulation called Coronil revealed poor manufacturing and toxic components.

We discuss in detail about the patients, their clinical outcomes, the liver injury, and supplements analysis in our paper here: https://t.co/8wh1lA6k6v

Public health is a national treasure. A mature, scientifically progressive government is one who cares about the country's public health. Choose a Government who cares for your public health.

“For he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.” – Owen Arthur

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

@srturaga Why compare? Why would anyone want to waste tax payers money on researching absolute nonsense like Homeopathy and unscientific Ayurveda?

[Elliot Swartz @elliotswartz]

A nice overview of the seesaw regulatory behavior we're witnessing with #cultivatedmeat.

Some countries (Italy, France, Romania, Austria) and U.S. states (Texas, Florida, Arizona) are proposing to literally ban it, while others (U.K., Israel, and much of Asia Pacific) are embracing it. Agricultural ministers in the E.U. have been spreading misinformation about cultivated meat at a council meeting held yesterday, aiming to undermine its development in the region (https://t.co/btMMyWxIsi).

@SciencEric said in a recent article, "Asia is going to eat [Europe's] lunch when it comes to innovation" and I completely agree. S. Korea, Japan, Thailand, and China are all moving forward on formalizing regulatory frameworks for cultivated meat, with several likely to be in place before year's end.

According to analysis by @TarikaVR, China published 21% of papers on cultivated meat in 2023, followed by S. Korea at 16%, and the U.S. in third at 13%. That rate of publishing out of Asia was not the case 2-3 years ago.

The next few years are going to be crucial in setting the stage for winners and losers when it comes to food innovation, as more cultivated meat companies decide on their go-to-market strategies.

The U.S. and E.U. could easily throw away an opportunity to have a new manufacturing industry and supply chain built in their countries rather than China, just as they did with the EV supply chain.

https://t.co/RmawNniUcv

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

@Farhanlakdawal4 @aditichaubey Academia, Bollywood and whatever that guy is smoking

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

Orry has made it to academic Twitter. That's enough internet for me today 🙃

[Oded Rechavi @OdedRechavi]

Running your own lab (watch the whole 7 minutes, it's priceless)

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

@JPLal10 Nobody knows 😐

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

@elliotswartz @AlephFarms Thanks for the synopsis, Elliot!

[Elliot Swartz @elliotswartz]

Congrats to @AlephFarms for being the 3rd company to receive regulatory approval for #cultivatedmeat

Key things to know:
- 1st approval in Israel
- 1st for cultivated beef
- 1st entirely animal-free process (no serum)

More details in thread:

https://t.co/dyYkwYdFST

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

😂

[Tarika Vijayaraghavan @TarikaVR]

@marlenejsb Keen to know how this will play out 😂