After Congress leader Navjot Sidhu revealed that his wife overcame cancer following a strict dietary regimen, oncologists advised patients not to follow “unproven remedies” while asserting that there was no evidence to support the former cricketer’s remarks.
The director at Tata Memorial Hospital, in a statement, slammed the unscientific and baseless recommendations. “Parts of the video imply that starving the cancer by not eating dairy products and sugar, consuming haldi (turmeric) and neem helped cure her ‘incurable’ cancer… These comments have no high quality evidence to support them,” Dr CS Pramesh said.
The statement was signed by 262 present and former oncologists of the Tata Memorial Hospital. The statement further said that there was no clinical data to recommend the use of neem and haldi as anti-cancer agents.
In a press conference, Sidhu revealed that his wife, Navjot Kaur, overcame stage 4 cancer following a simple dietary and lifestyle regimen. He claimed that Kaur, who was given a 5% chance to survive, was discharged from hospital after 40 days.
Sidhu said his wife’s diet included turmeric, neem water, apple cider vinegar, lemon water. This was coupled with strict avoidance of sugar and carbohydrates and intermittent fasting.
The oncologists urged cancer patients not to delay their treatment by following unproven remedies. “Cancer is curable if detected early and proven treatments for cancer include surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy,” read the statement.
Dr Pramesh, posting a clip of Sidhu’s press conference on X, said one should not get “fooled” by such claims.
“These are unscientific and baseless recommendations. She got surgery and chemotherapy that were evidence based which is what made her cancer-free. Not the haldi, neem etc,” he said.