Invitation to attend Shri Jacob Vadakkanchery's Lecture on 6/6/2017 at IIT Madras

[Gayathri Nayar]

Dear friends:

The well-known Gandhian, activist and naturopath physician from Kerala, Shri Jacob Vadakkanchery, will be on campus till June 7th. He has agreed to discuss his cause and work in an informal and interactive discourse, and is also available for free consultations about the natural and dietary way to health.

                                                                                                                    

Title: "Self-Healing: Be your own physician and find the natural way to living without disease".

 

Date: 6th June, 2017

 

Time: 4 to 7 PM

 

Venue: CLT, IIT Madras

 

Shri Vadakkanchery was perhaps the single most influential force that inspired the now rapidly growing movement in Kerala toward organic living and natural healing. Perhaps more accurately Shri Vadakkanchery, has for long served as a dynamic centre around which an expanding network of people who are passionate about the Gandhian ideals of natural health, organic living and sustainability, has crystallized and evolved into a significant revolution in natural and sustainable living today. His naturopathy initiative, Nature Life International, has seven hospitals in Kerala and branches in Thailand and Cambodia, several of which are well-known and remarkably effective in curing the set of chronic ailments that are popularly called the lifestyle diseases. He has the distinction of being or having been the personal physician of many persons of repute- activists, scholars, thinkers, writers, Gandhians- including the popular and veteran politician and ex-Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri V S Achuthanandan.

 

Shri Vadakkanchery has also been, for decades, an active and aggressive campaigner against the malpractices of the medical and pharmaceutical industry, and taken on with success big manufacturers of harmful pesticides and food products containing harmful additives. In addition, he has been​, both through his health movement and otherwise, a strong proponent of organic living and agriculture, environmental conservation and the Gandhian principles of sustainability and individual self-sufficiency. The motto of Nature Life International is to empower those suffering from ill-health to heal themselves, and to make the physician dispensable, so to speak, by experiencing and imbibing the principles of healthy living in harmony with nature.

[Sunil Damodhar]

Well, who's this guy? For starters, this man isn't even a qualified medical practitioner! He agrees that he doesn't possess a medical degree but justifies himself saying that as long as he 'treats' patients, he can call himself a 'doctor'. This is so even on his own website http://www.naturelifeinternational.com in which he is "Dr. Vadakkanchery". In plain terms, he's a quack and a con man who calls himself a 'doctor'. I wonder whether the organizers were aware of his quackery while inviting him.
http://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/kerala/anti-vaccination-campaign-complaint-against-jacob-vadakkanchery-english-news-1.1216597

But the bigger question is, why the hell is IIT-M inviting such quacks? Do they really think that a man who lacks medical education can lecture us on the "ills" of modern medicine? These quacks do more harm through their ignorance. The results of not vaccinating kids is already showing up in parts of Kerala (Malappuram) where kids who weren't vaccinated by their parents, are dying of diphtheria, and apart from religious reasons, people here blame the misinformation spread by these quacks. Some have gone as far as to name this guy among the other quacks active in the region for the lack of awareness.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/The-fallacies-of-the-faithful/article14479789.ece
http://www.kochipost.com/2016/08/17/mla-skips-jacob-vadakkancherys-controversial-programme-authorities-failing-act-tough-fake-doctors/

The man even goes on to blame modern medicine and vaccination for cancer.
"Cancer is the end result of years of terminating the body's natural detoxification process with dangerous poisons – allopathic medications and vaccines...Contrary to popular belief, tumours actually indicate strength, given that the body has collected all of the toxic materials and trapped the poisons to one cluster, so as to contend with them more efficiently. In fact, cancer patients are often healthier than individuals with toxins spread throughout their entire body. Thus, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are far more dangerous than the actual tumours."
- http://www.naturelifeinternational.com/cancer.html

After the death of two kids in Malappuram, the district administration started a vaccination drive which was opposed by Jacob Vadakkanchery.
The Hindu reports: "Soon after the September deaths (due to diphtheria in unvaccinated kids), a 500-strong group of so-called alternative healers, led by Jacob Wadakkancherry, had marched from the District Collector’s bungalow through Malappuram town, speaking out against vaccination.A few days later, they organised a family meeting of those who have abjured vaccinations.The District Medical Office videotaped both events for taking action, but the “order from the top” was to maintain silence, says Dr. Farook.."

I'm sure Jacob Vadakkanchery would henceforth claim this event to be an endorsement by IIT-M.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Prakriti (IIT Madras)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to iitm_prakriti+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to iitm_p...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/iitm_prakriti.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Gayathri Nayar]

Dear Sunil,

    Thank you for candidly expressing your concerns about extending the invitation to Dr. Jacob Vadakkanchery to speak to an interested audience at the IIT. I hope to address the main points. (I am sure that this email's length will encourage only the most interested reader, but it is for the record, too.)

1. "Dr. Vadakkanchery has not received a medical education.":

    Dr. Vadakkanchery has been privileged to enjoy a lengthy apprenticeship to learn Ayurveda and naturopathy from his late guru Vaidyabhooshanam Dr. Raghavan Thirumulpad, one of the foremost practitioners of traditional Ayurveda, who is revered as the father of naturopathy in Kerala. The legendary physician ​Thirumulpad is the author of authoritative texts on Ayurveda and naturopathy and was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2011, shortly after his demise at the age of ninety in November 2010. He was himself a well-known advocate of Gandhian philosophy, and had himself acquired his knowledge through the tutelage of famous scholars and physicians in the true Guru-Shishya parampara, which was the manner in which advanced, specialised learning was imparted in our culture. Educationally, Dr. Vadakkanchery could now be deemed the latest legatee of an illustrious lineage in traditional holistic healing.

2. "Not qualified to assume the title of doctor":

    The title, by definition and as I understand from sources online, can be assumed by one who is either a licensed practitioner of medicine or has been awarded the highest educational degree (doctorate) in his field. The Indian government clearly recognises and now officially promotes other systems of healthcare, including naturopathy, through the Ministry of Ayush. Therefore, in our country and from its definition, the honorific of doctor is awarded to a knowledgeable practitioner of any recognised system of healing including alternate and holistic systems, and it is also understood that doctors educated through traditional apprenticeship, however qualified, would not be degree-holders in our modern sense.

3. "A quack, who is deceiving people through his fraudulent claims of expertise":

    Dr. Vadakkanchery's natural health initiative Nature Life International has, for over two decades, run successful hospitals and health camps in Kerala and Thailand, where patients with chronic or debilitating illnesses arrive regularly to be treated of their illnesses. These patients are frequently ones whose illnesses had advanced to such degree that they despaired of finding succour through conventional healthcare, and desperately seek alternatives. The hospitals are adequately equipped and staffed, quite moderately priced, and maintain records of patient information for the physician's claims to be verifiable, if the consistent past performance of these relatively inexpensive and social-minded establishments is not proof enough. To me, it is sufficient evidence that their patients are apparently benefiting and happy to spread the physician's message​ and word about his work. It is also surely proof of his credibility that he has been personal physician to politicians, scholars, writers, thinkers and activists of great stature, whom most doctors may have deemed it a privilege to treat, persons of the ilk of former Kerala Chief Minister and a CPI(M) founder V S Achuthanandan and the scholar, writer and philosopher Sukumar Azhikode.

4. "Dr. Vadakkanchery spreads misleading information about beneficial allopathic treatments like vaccines and chemotherapy":

    Dr. Vadakkanchery has developed a considerable reputation among the common people, built gradually over more than two or three decades of his naturopathic practice. His simple treatment methods are found especially effective in healing the more difficult lifestyle diseases and other increasingly common chronic health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, many forms of cancer, asthma, disorders of the reproductive system etc. with evidently high success rates for several supposedly incurable conditions. In the light of such empirical proof, he is surely entitled to have and express his opinions, even if his theory is thought to fit poorly with current mainstream medical understanding. It seems to me that the correct rational response to such seeming errors in his assertions, both in the interest of our health as well as to expand the horizons of our understanding, would be to examine and try to reconcile the empirical results of his treatments with modern theory, for it is theory that should exert itself to suit observation and not vice versa. It is commonly known that the theoretical bases of traditional and holistic systems of medicine like naturopathy, homeopathy and Ayurveda is orthogonal to that of modern medicine, and it would be challenging but interesting to explore a mapping between them.

5. "Dr. Vadakkanchery has harmed public health through his active support of the anti-vax campaign in Kerala":

    Alternative medical systems are typically discouraging of vaccination. The anti-vax camp's predominant objection is that adjuvants and preservatives used in vaccines contain potent metallic neurotoxins and carcinogens in unsafe, cumulative dosages that are hard to eliminate from the body, and the potential damage to immature or susceptible immune systems from such ingredients is improperly understood. In India, with a strong and traditionally validated culture of holistic healthcare (those that view the body as being a whole organism, different from the sum of its anatomical/ metabolic parts), Dr. Vadakkanchery's position on vaccines is hardly an uncommon one, though, in his characteristic way, he has certainly been more outspoken than most alternate physicians. The vaccine debate is an old and wide-ranging contention with significant arguments and research to support both sides of the case. Dr. Vadakkanchery's ​possibly inadequate representations of the case against vaccines in some public forums are not a good measure to judge the anti-vax position by. In fact, there is some statistical evidence that the huge body of anti-vax supporters are typically educated and responsible citizens, and therefore their concerns ought not to be easily ridiculed as the alarms of Luddites, but engaged with sincerely by the scientific community.

    Finally, I would like to clarify my own perspective on Dr. Jacob Vadakkanchery and his work. My parents and I have been closely associated with the naturopath-activist for several years, and have had the chance to observe his organizations, patients, treatments, activism, schedule and the other aspects of his life and work. I have high personal esteem for him, as a humanitarian and nonviolent Gandhian, passionate about social and environmental causes and ready to stand up for his beliefs at great personal cost. However, we have also been critical of a certain measure of scientific naivete in his rhetoric and writing, even though he is well-studied, we have privately lamented that the Nature Life hospitals could in general have been better organized and managed, and wished that his rhetoric drew less on emotion and sensationalism than on objective fact, we have wished that his public debates were better prepared and scientifically more rigorous, and also that he had focused on expanding his well-established healthcare initiative and on constructing a better, possibly evidence-based, theoretical foundation for naturopathy, than on activism.

    However, we have also known that our friends in Alappuzha, the long-married couple who conceived within an year of embracing his recommended regimen, the chronic diabetic and heart patient who was a friend of my grandfather and resumed a normal life free from medication through naturopathy, and the low-income acquaintance with advanced stomach cancer, deep in debt from conventional therapy, who returned to work in a few months after nature cure, are all people who are simply happy to experience health again and couldn't care less about the intellectual rigor of their physician's activism.

    We have also learnt, through his guidance, a radical new outlook on body, health and disease, which put our whole family on a path to learning to live in greater harmony with nature and with our own selves, and we are grateful. We have recommended the treatments to many, and seen other lives and attitudes transformed too, toward a gentler (lower energy-footprint) and a more natural, spiritual way of food and living. We feel that Dr. Vadakkanchery's great contribution is not his scientific theory of why naturopathy works better than pharmaceutical drugs, but an empirical proof, demonstrated in the field of healthcare, that a quintessentially non-violent approach to eating, living and healing is ultimately in the best interests of both man and nature.

Warm regards,

Gayathri

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Swachh IIT Madras" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to swachh-iitm+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to swach...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swachh-iitm/CABSF3XpH6waU%3DePJE%2BE1ZG8as_S%3DkXfsf09yB2iH22eD8jeyWQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Deepak Krishnan]

Dear Sunil,

Greetings!

There is still an extensive research required on the vaccinations, which was highly propagandized by pharmaceutical companies.

The CDC cover up of the vaccine link to autism and the ongoing fight to educate others about the dangers of early childhood vaccines that contain a witches brew of dangerous ingredients from mercury and formaldehyde to animal and human DNA. 

Please fine below quite few videos about the impact of vaccination all around the world (which includes confrontation by physicians).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLEl3WTBOk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncuOv9VBxw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8wdNKJ-FOI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHWeJ0f_o3A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEH41plbffM

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFg66_uSi_w-pxohlmtF6_C9t5CpevPDM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Srm249_kM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yqtu9TRi7A

I assume we should try to do bit of research whatever been published by the popular media and medical organisations which had cordial relation with corporate pharma companies.

Thanks & regards,

Deepak Krishnan. M. A.

--

.....
Deepak krishnan


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Krishnamurti, meditation was choiceless awareness in the present. He said "..When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy - if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation.

[Sunil Damodhar]

Dear Gayathri Ma'am,

Thank you for your clarifications regarding "Dr" Vadakkanchery. I'm however not convinced. You enlisted some of the strongest allegations against Jacob Vadakkanchery but those lengthy rebuttals hardly rebut the allegations.

1. Of being a legatee of a lineage and using the "Dr" title.
Being a legatee of a lineage cannot make up for a formal medical education and the "Dr" title isn't obtained by such inheritance. Being the apprentice of a renowned mechanic neither makes me equivalent to an engineering graduate nor makes me eligible to make such a claim. Deep study of subjects such as cell biology, physiology, human anatomy, etc are a prerequisite to even understand the exact cause of an ailment, let alone prescribe a medicine. Vadakkanchery's drivelling that all ailments are due to "toxins" is just plain nonsense and is more than enough proof of lack of basic knowledge. If one agrees that someone doesn't hold a medical degree, then why address the person by the title "Dr"? Using a "Dr" title without possessing a medical degree (and treating patients) is a punishable offence (do check out the Indian Medical Council Act 1956). Apart from the legal issues, isn't it unethical and unbecoming of a man who claims to be a Gandhian? Is a man who calls modern medicine a sham and "campaigns against the malpractices of the medical and pharmaceutical industry", unaware of the consequences of using the title without possessing a medical degree? Or is he, by his own admission, aware but is not going to stop using the title? Then how can he take this holier-than-thou approach? Now that people have pointed out that he can't use the title, why hasn't this man, who's out to expose malpractices, stopped using the title? It's like I'm here to call someone's bluff but I'd keep bluffing! It is clear that the only intention behind using the title is to deceive innocent people. That the current govt provided some thrust to traditional systems is no justification for this fraudulent claim.

2. Why only anecdotal evidence for everything? Why not publish results after a double-blind study and earn undisputed bragging rights rather?

If "the correct rational response to such seeming errors in his assertions would be to examine and try to reconcile the empirical results of his treatments with modern theory", why can't his methods be subject to trials rather than throwing names around? Why can't the proponents of alternative medicine subject these medications to double-blind studies? If someone ignores mainstream medicine for Vadakkanchery's alternative medicine, will Vadakkanchery or his proponents owe up?
In modern medicine, we ask for results from phase-I, II, III etc before a drug can be adopted as standard therapy. This involves trials on animals before testing on humans and wider double-blind trials. We however do not extend the same to alternative systems which can administer anything as medicine. Yet we doubt "allopathy" and call such medicines toxic. We ask for highly convincing statistical evidence for allopathy but are satisfied with anecdotal evidence for alternative medicine. Why aren't these alternative medicines judged by the same yardstick?

3. "His simple treatment methods are found especially effective in healing the more difficult lifestyle diseases and other increasingly common chronic health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, many forms of cancer, asthma, disorders of the reproductive system etc. with evidently high success rates for several supposedly incurable conditions"
Have these tall claims been independently verified? Effective treatments for so many diseases including cancer and that too with high success rates for several supposedly incurable conditions??? Going by that list and the high success rate claimed, he should've won the Nobel prize for medicine by now! My guess is that the pharma industry is actively conspiring to suppress these results and must've colluded to make sure that these amazing results don't reach the ears of the committee that awards the Nobel prize ;)

Quite often, people who are diagnosed with advanced cancers seek alternative medicine apart from mainstream medicines. But according to renowned Oncologist VP Gangadharan, the credit, if cured or brought under control, finally goes to alternative medicine with the patient claiming that it was alternative medicine that cured him and not the chemo/radiation. I came across these clarifications from him on a health magazine published by the popular daily Mathrubhumi. He was asked by the magazine about two patients whom he had treated. He'd assured them of a cure as these were cancers that could be treated by radiation therapy, and were finally cured at the end of the regimen. They however, went on to claim that Naturopathy cured them (as a result of which the magazine sought a clarification from Dr VP Gangadharan, and promptly published his statement too along with the claim).

4. If "there is some statistical evidence that the huge body of anti-vax supporters are typically educated and responsible citizens", why ignore statistical evidence that vaccines work? And why ignore the statistical evidence that vaccines are safe? Isn't the evidence that vaccines work overwhelming?

It is easy to allege a conspiracy. Anybody can. It's however hard to disprove them given the scientific literacy of the proponents of such conspiracy theories. Anyhow, the harm that such misinformation does, shows up in the form of deaths due to diseases that could've been easily prevented through vaccinations. The diphtheria outbreak at Malappuram is one such example. Will anti-vax supporters take the responsibility for deaths that might result from the misinformation they spread? Are these"educated citizens" aware of how small pox was eradicated or how polio was brought under control or what the only treatment for rabies is? For people like Vadakkanchery, ignorance of the naive is a bliss.

"In the light of such empirical proof, he is surely entitled to have and express his opinions (on vaccines and chemotherapy), even if his theory is thought to fit poorly with current mainstream medical understanding."
You say all these are "Dr" Vadakkanchery's opinions (and need not be facts), and that they fit poorly with mainstream medical understanding?? Then on what basis is he advocating his "opinions"? Can "empirical proof" entitle someone to spread misinformation or express opinions on subjects over one has little or no knowledge, and then ask people to accept those assertions as facts? Can a person with poor medical knowledge be accepted as an authority on these subjects?

"Dr. Vadakkanchery's ​possibly inadequate representations of the case against vaccines.."

Isn't this "inadequate representation" a result of his ignorance of the matter altogether? Surely an expert of his calibre can't make such an inadequate representation, can he? Especially when he is spearheading such campaigns against mainstream medicine!

5. Are we to believe his nonsense as expert opinion?

Let me list a few from the loads of meaningless drivel that his writings are full of:

"Cancer is the end result of years of terminating the body's natural detoxification process with dangerous poisons – allopathic medications and vaccines."

Our "doctor" doesn't even know what cancer is!

"tumours actually indicate strength given that the body has collected all of the toxic materials and trapped the poisons to one cluster, so as to contend with them more efficiently"

Then the patient with the largest tumour must be the one whose body possesses the strongest defence against "toxins" !! So tumours aren't cells but "toxic materials" that came from allopathic medicines, vaccines, food preservatives, etc..!!
From what I learnt or what pharmaceutical companies want me to believe, tumours are groups of abnormal cells that form lumps or growths. But "Dr" Vadakkanchery calls them toxins and that "the body has collected all of the toxic materials and trapped the poisons to one cluster". Are we to believe such plain nonsense as facts?

"Cancer patients are often healthier than individuals with toxins (tumours?) spread throughout their entire body"

"Antibiotics and immunisations are dangerous and unnecessary. "Bacterial infections" are a medical excuse for selling drugs or explaining a death, when in fact bacteria grows only after the accumulation of toxic matter, providing a favourable atmosphere for their growth."
Ignorance of the worst form. If Vadakkanchery calls antibiotics and immunizations as dangerous and unnecessary, isn't he harming public health?

There are even more statements in his website which calls all medicines as toxins and that they are better avoided since the body can "heal itself". One such statement goes like this: "Believing that we need to fix our bodies through medication is working against the body's intelligence and causes nothing but cellular damage.The key to health and longevity, therefore, is to allow the bodies to perform its healing power without uselessly intervening."

"The whole point of broadcasting and advertising infectious diseases is to scare the public into purchasing "protective measures" such as flu shots and vaccinations."

Pot calling the kettle black? When the whole world is trying to eradicate diseases through vaccinations, this man and his ilk are out to deter such efforts. Try telling that this man isn't putting others' lives at risk.

"Essentially, fat is the overload of toxic material, which the body can no longer eliminate, that is stored in the fat cells to keep the organs safe."

Every disease or ailment is because of "toxic material" that originated from allopathic medicines and vaccines. Do check out his website that lists all ailments and attributes their cause to "toxic materials" that got accumulated in the body due to consumption of allopathic medicines and vaccines (which according to him are genetically engineered toxins), processed food,

Aren't all these more than enough to say that this guy is a quack and puts others' lives at risk?

[Gayathri Nayar]

Dear Sunil,

    I realise that I could not respond to your further objections without mostly paraphrasing my last message, which is surely unnecessary. Therefore, I humbly suggest that you might read my earlier response in a kinder light to confirm whether it does not contain at least many of the answers you seek.

    Further, I realise that the extents of our familiarity with holistic healing systems in general, and Dr. Jacob Vadakkanchery's methods in particular, are vastly different. As you care deeply to learn the truth, you may like to study his work with an open mind by visiting and inquiring at his institutions. It is good to be cautious that a premature objection should not shut our minds to unlikely possibilities. For my part, I hope that my own experiences will not have closed my mind to seeing them in the light of a new interpretation.

    I agree with your idea that these results are worthy of a Nobel prize and should be published. I have suggested it many times to the organization, but I realise that activists and traditionalists without a background in academia may not wholly appreciate the value of the suggestion, and this cultural distinction is in our interest to bridge by assisting them to translate their knowledge to our preferred paradigm.

    When we delve deeper into such issues, we may realize the great extent to which information in public ken is manipulated by influential and moneyed interests, and we may be less naive in our acceptance of the "accepted", the more so when we imagine that our lives may depend on such an intelligent suspicion. It is certainly a journey to be embarked on, and perhaps it begins with indignation such as you are feeling now.

Warm regards,

G. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swachh-iitm/CABSF3XrMkXjdjjxcUZXB%3DW0ptOrhe%3D7Us1dS6B-UL3yHC88hNA%40mail.gmail.com.