New form of quackery on the rise on social media, warn experts

Hyderabad: A new form of quackery is on the rise on social media. There are any number of reels and unsolicited advises on issues related to health, medicines and measures to keep oneself fit. All this according to the State Medical Council is quackery and should be made punishable under the law. The medical council said many issues like giving advises on reducing weight instantly, or giving tips on how to handle certain common ailments with the help of certain spices etc had come to their notice.

The Warangal Ayurvedic College professor A Ramesh Babu said youtube is full of reels or clips which suggest that a person should drink four litres of water and another suggest five litres a day but more water could also lead to complications. Similarly crash diet programmes or use of certain beauty products could cause serious harm to the body and skin.

All this has become possible because there is no system of scrutiny of these programmes on social media and those who are coming up such videos are going scot free. But there are groups who rush to courts against registered ayurvedic medicines manufactured by reputed companies. The Telangana State Medical Council Vice Chairman Dr G Srinivas said that the government both state and central should focus their attention on this menace on social media and come up necessary guidelines and regulations so that the law enforcing agencies can take action against those who come up with unscientific suggestions and advises.

The vice chairman said TSMC said they were getting complaints on social media health content and soon the Commission

would book suo moto cases against those responsible. There is provision for punishment under the Complementary Alternative Medicine Act, he said.

Giving an example he said there were some who suggest that diabetic patients need not to take insulin. This is a dangerous suggestion. It could turn dangerous for the patients.

The experts said that even to advise about the food, one should be a registered dietician. The experts told the Hans India that one should never google the symptoms because diseases are incredibly complex and urged the media to play a key role in creating awareness among people not to fall prey to social media campaigns which are not scientifically proved.