If Hypocrisy Had A Face: Condescending Troll “Liver Doc” Who Calls Ayurveda & Alternative Medicine As Pseudoscience Works At A Christian Missionary-Run Hospital That Does “Pastoral Healing” And Has Yoga Dept

If Hypocrisy Had A Face: Condescending Troll “Liver Doc” Who Calls Ayurveda & Alternative Medicine As Pseudoscience Works At A Christian Missionary-Run Hospital That Does “Pastoral Healing” And Has Yoga Dept

Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, known to his social media followers as “The Liver Doc,” has built a formidable online persona as a crusader against ‘non-mainstream’ medicine, loudly decrying Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga, and other Indic healing systems as “pseudoscience.” His latest online tirade was directed at Indian chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, who had simply posted a family photo on Doctor’s Day, celebrating his loved ones who practice various forms of medicine — from Ayurveda to physiotherapy.

Philips accused Gujrathi of “normalizing pseudoscience” and dismissed his entire family as “not real doctors.” Yet a closer look at Philips’ own professional affiliations exposes a gaping hole in the credibility of his crusade.

Now let’s talk about the double standards of this “liver doctor”.

He works at Rajagiri Hospital, a Christian missionary-run institution.

Now this hospital offers the mainstream “evidence based” medicine and also, guess what? Hosts an Ayurveda department – something Philips denounces heavily.

In fact, the hospital themselves address these Ayurveda practitioners that Philips hates as …. drum roll… “doctors”!!!

Add to this, Philips’ pet peeve, Yoga, is also endorsed by the same hospital.

Now, here’s where things get even more interesting. The hospital also boasts an elaborate pastoral healing ministry!

This unit invokes the healing power of God, provides Holy Communion, sacramental reconciliation, and hosts daily masses for patients and their families — all under the banner of “spiritual care.”

For all the virtue signalling and shaming he does on his X handle and via podcasts too, by appearing on these platforms as an “expert”, he is unable to do the same with the place of his employment! So much for being a crusader.

If Philips genuinely believes Ayurveda is pseudoscience and healing prayers are unscientific, why is he comfortable working at an institution that promotes both? Why does his righteous indignation stop at the hospital gates? If he’s willing to lambast strangers on the internet, mock homeopaths, physiotherapists, and cosmetologists, and ridicule Yoga as ineffective, why has he never publicly called out his own hospital’s religious and traditional healing practices?

Rajagiri Hospital’s chaplaincy page states, “We facilitate pastoral care to all who come to the hospital… Our motto ‘We care, We cure’ is a proclamation of our firm commitment to invoke the healing power of God upon the whole person, body and soul.”

Maybe they did not consult with Philips before they posted it on the website? But now that he knows, where is his rage about this? Where are his fact-check threads debunking “divine healing” or mocking priests distributing Holy Communion for recovery? If he truly believes in medical ethics and scientific purity, what explains his continued employment at a hospital that blurs the line between medicine and faith healing?

Double Standards And Bias

Dr. Philips’ selective outrage also reveals a deeper ideological and cultural bias. He targets Ayurveda and Yoga, the pillars of India’s own civilizational knowledge, while staying conspicuously silent about similar or even more fantastical claims made by his hospital’s Christian healing ministry. His critics rightly ask: why does he never speak against “miracle prayer meetings” or faith-based healing sessions that happen within his own religious tradition?

Even more revealing is the hospital’s commitment to pastoral visits, rosary devotion, and sacramental rituals as part of its “compassionate care”, practices no less unscientific than homeopathy or Ayurveda. Yet they’re apparently exempt from the Liver Doc’s laser-focused scorn. If his scientific ethics were consistent, he would be calling for the removal of the chapel before demanding the shutdown of Ayurveda colleges.

The AYUSH Question

Dr. Philips often claims that AYUSH systems are not real medicine. But in India, under the Ministry of AYUSH, these systems are legally recognized, their practitioners licensed, and many have state-run colleges and dedicated research centers. Whether or not one personally agrees with these systems, to claim their practitioners are “not doctors” is not just scientifically reductive but legally incorrect.

In contrast, the “healing ministry” he works under is not regulated by any medical council. Yet there’s not a peep from him about how unscientific that is. It raises a fundamental question: Does Dr. Philips’ science only go one way?

When a netizen named Taleb asked the same guy to prove his statements with statistics, Philips shifted the goalpost and commented about “manners”.

He even quoted this screenshot portraying himself as a “victim”.

He wrote, “The mathematical randomness, probability and uncertainty of the philosophical ad hominem from Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Sigh.”

And when netizens pointed out at how Philips was left speechless after this interaction, he tried to prove it was a win for him by saying, Lol! Taleb’s ad hominem on me is what a win for Ayurveda and Homeopathy sympathizers from Indian #MedTwitter looks like. Not rational or logical arguments directed to me. Looks like every #MedTwitter troll and science illiterate who pisses their pants when I enter the chat is now celebrating in their echo chambers.”

Let us also not forget that his father, Dr. Philip Augustine, was among the accused in a 2009 organ trafficking case involving Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi. Although Dr. Abby Philips has denied the allegations, calling them false and politically motivated, the case remains part of the public record, with summons issued to several doctors.

In 2023, he peddled fake news by falsely claiming that the National Medical Commission (NMC) removed the Ashoka emblem from its logo and replaced it with an image of the Hindu deity Dhanwantari. He referred to the updated logo as a sign of “India’s entry into pseudoscience hell.”

However, the NMC’s officiating chairman BN Gangadhar clarified that the logo had always included Dhanwantari in black-and-white, and only a color version was added for printability. He emphasized that there was no removal of the Ashoka emblem and no significant change beyond coloring and the replacement of “India” with “Bharat.”

Philips’s claim was further debunked using archived versions of the logo from the Wayback Machine. Despite this, several leftist outlets such as South First and The News Minute amplified his false narrative.

In November 2023, he faced a complaint during the Himalaya Wellness defamation case from a Kerala-based lawyer alleging he lacked valid registration with the Kerala State Medical Council (KSMC) and was unqualified to practice as a hepatologist. The KSMC launched an inquiry, though the requirement for state registration remains legally contested under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. Dr. Philips later submitted proof of his MD and DM degrees from institutes in Kolkata and Delhi, and his registration process with the KSMC was underway, leading to the dismissal of the complaint. Philips, known for aggressively criticizing figures like Baba Ramdev, accused him of spreading misinformation on liver diseases and diabetes cures using yoga, cow urine, and herbal products.

The Real Problem: Social Media Bravado, Real-Life Silence

Perhaps the most glaring contradiction is that all of Dr. Philips’ bravery seems to exist exclusively on X. When it comes to public discourse, he adopts the tone of a medical inquisition, “calling out” others with scathing sarcasm and personal jabs. But when it comes to challenging his own hospital’s faith-healing practices or Ayurvedic department, there is only radio silence.

If he were truly committed to scientific integrity, he would resign from Rajagiri Hospital and join an institution that reflects his professed standards. Until then, his social media sermons are just that – sermons, not science.

If homeopathy is pseudoscience and Ayurveda is primitive, then invoking divine healing through prayer should be the first thing on his chopping block, but that would mean confronting the religious establishment he’s part of. Standing up where it actually matters and that takes courage. And that’s a virtue the Liver Doc sorely lacks.

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