- Thursday, January 23, 2025
Noted hepatologist Philips called Vembu a ‘science illiterate’ and told him to stop peddling ‘ancient nonsense’ and misinforming people
By: India Weekly
STARTUP entrepreneur Sridhar Vembu is now locked in a war or words over the effectiveness of cow urine therapy.
The Zoho co-founder and CEO had recently supported IIT Madras director V Kamakoti, who had claimed in a recent viral video clip that cow urine has ‘medicinal value’.
He claimed that it has “anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and digestive properties.”
Vembu’s support to Kamakoti on social media invited the attention of Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, a well-known hepatologist whose Twitter handle name is ‘The Liver Doc’.
Philips called Vembu a ‘science illiterate’ and told him to stop peddling ‘ancient nonsense’ and misinforming people.
Vembu responded by saying, “The left liberal crowd in our country likes to dump on Bharat’s traditional knowledge systems.”
He said there is a need to examine the traditional practices with a scientific approach and called for greater humility.
“Science does not mix with arrogance well. Science does not grant us absolute certainties.
That scientific humility includes acknowledging that traditional knowledge systems, including those of Bharat, may have deep insights for us. That is the true scientific attitude,” he wrote.
He also said the premise that cow urine and cow dung have beneficial properties is “not some superstitious quackery. Modern science is converging there. It is the closed minded fanatic who takes part in online mobs.”
Meanwhile, Kamakoti on Monday (20) claimed that top journals in the US have published papers on scientific evidence of the effectiveness of cow urine.
Justifying his recent comments, Kamakoti said, “This has been scientifically demonstrated. Journals in the United States have published the scientific evidence.”
He pointed out that based on its medicinal properties, cow urine was available for sale online.
While addressing the ‘Go Samrakshana Sala” event on Maatu Pongal day (on January 15) dedicated to cows, Kamakoti reportedly stated that cow urine has anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties and can heal a variety of illnesses, including irritable bowel syndrome.
His remarks drew widespread criticism from rationalist organisations and political parties.
He shared articles published in ‘Nature’, a scientific journal, in June 2021 in which the scientists associated with the Animal Biotechnology Centre and Cell Biology and Proteomics Lab of the National Dairy Research Institute, published the result of peptide profiling in cow urine.
The authors concluded that the discovery of thousands of endogenous peptides in cow urine contributes to various bioactivities associated with urine.
Vembu and Dr Philips had earlier clashed over the practice of walking barefoot, referred to as “grounding.”
Sharing his personal experience of walking barefoot on his farm for nearly a year, Vembu claimed it was a simple and cost-free practice with purported health benefits.
Dr Philips, however, dismissed grounding as a “pseudoscientific practice” with no credible benefits. He said the notion has no clinical validation and accused it of contaminating scientific literature.
