CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Board of Indian Medicine on Sunday sought an explanation within 15 days from Siddha medicine practitioner and YouTuber ‘Dr Sharmika’ for allegedly spreading misinformation during interviews on YouTube channels. An inquiry committee was formed to probe the issue.
Speaking to TNIE, P Parthiban, Joint Director of the Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy said, the action was taken after an email complaint was raised. The complainant mentioned that Sharmika had told her viewers that eating junk food would cause dengue and malaria, and sleeping on the stomach would cause breast cancer.
In a recent video interview, the YouTuber ‘Dr Sharmika’ allegedly told the anchor “eating eight palmyra fruit daily will enhance the breast and results can be seen within three months.” This interview went viral on social media platforms and several users trolled the YouTuber. In other interviews, she advised users against eating small gulab jamun as it would cause a weight gain of 3 kg in a day.
Meanwhile, two days ago, ‘Dr Sharmika’ uploaded a video on the Daisy Hospital YouTube channel where she apologised for stating that junk food would cause dengue and malaria. “ It was a human error. In a flow, I said that and I apologise for that.” She added that the information on gulab jamun also was an error.
However, she denied her remarks on breast cancer. The YouTuber said, sleeping on the stomach was one of the reasons for cancer but added she didn’t mention that it would cause breast cancer.