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‘Health-illiterate boomer uncle’: The Liver Doc, Sridhar Vembu trade insults over benefits of walking barefoot
Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu and social media-famous doctor Cyriac Abby Philips, aka The Liver Doc, traded insults on social media over the issue of grounding.
Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu and social media-famous doctor Cyriac Abby Philips, aka The Liver Doc, traded insults on social media over the issue of grounding. Dr Philips has been targeting several high-profile names for spreading healthcare-related misinformation. His latest target was Sridhar Vembu, who advocated the benefits of “grounding” via walking barefoot in a divisive post shared on the social media platform X.
Vembu, 56, said that he has been walking barefoot in his farm for close to a year. “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!” he urged, sharing a post that elaborates further on the benefits of grounding - the practice of connecting with the Earth's electrical energy by walking barefoot on natural surfaces like grass.
Dr Philips, however, slammed it as a pseudoscientific practice with no proven benefits.
What is Grounding?
“Grounding 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,” he wrote in response to Vembu.
Dr Philips, who goes by “The Liver Doc” on social media, took pains to dissect what grounding means and its supposed benefits.
“The act of grounding refers to a physical connection between the electrical frequencies of the human body with that of Earth’s, 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,” he quoted.
“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,” the Kerala doctor claimed, warning that walking barefoot leads to higher risk of foot infections.
He ended his post with a jibe at Vembu. “Indian 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,” wrote Dr Philips.
Zoho billionaire Sridhar Vembu hit back at the doctor in a series of posts shared on the social media platform X.
He first highlighted the jibe of “health-illiterate boomer uncle” and responded in kind by calling The Liver Doc an “arrogant doctor.”
“Arrogant doctors”
“Stay away from arrogant doctors - that is the best health tip I can give anyone,” the Tamil Nadu-based entrepreneur wrote. “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,” Vembu added.
In a separate post, he said that medical science is ever-evolving, and to dismiss the benefits of ancient practices as rubbish is foolish.
Vembu gave two examples as he urged his followers to protect scientific progress from arrogant doctors.
“The liverdoc writes ‘Leave doctors and healthworkers to do what they have to do, including demystifying misinformation from science-illiterates like yourself.’
“This is the exact arrogance I am talking about. As Covid demonstrated perfectly well, very good doctors disagreed with what the US medical establishment declared as "misinformation" (Ivermectin as an example, which my good doctor in India prescribed to me and I took),” he said.
Vembu gave two examples - on the benefits of coconut oil and the drawbacks of alcohol - that he said have been known in India for centuries, even though modern medical science has only recently acknowledged both.
“I am a ‘science illiterate’ who has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and know how to read a research paper and also know that most published papers are bogus. The body is a bio electrical system. This idea of grounding is at least scientifically plausible. That is why I said "I do It, try it for yourself" - I stand by it,” Vembu said.
He also doubled down on the benefits of grounding, referring to the book “Born to Run” which he says has done extensive research on the topic.
