This is in reference to the statement ‘ Herbs and vitamins do not help in boosting immunity https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/health/supplements-dont-boost-immunity-against-covid19-dak/” .
The statement has outrightly rejected the claims of boosting immunity by supplements giving the scientific reason that immunity was an inbuilt mechanism to fight against the diseases and that “various supplement companies are using the current health crisis to sell products they claim to strengthen the immune system”. But on the other hand, things are not all established and there are contradictions in the opinions of the experts itself with respect to the claims of possibility of boosting of immunity system in an individual. Using the current health crisis to sell products could be questionable but rejecting herbs and vitamins with respect to possibility of booting immunity is a big debate- a global one. Herbs too are the ingredients of drugs besides the other kinds of raw material. Herbal therapy, vitamin deficiency are part of medicine.
Herbs are part of food we eat. The statement for a common man is confusing, whether he uses herbs, vitamins or not; whether he will follow one doctor or the other contradicting the same issue. Will using herbs and vitamins affect the SOP precautions of mask wearing, use of sanitizers, keeping public distance or it will make him more sensitive, needs to be analyzed. When a pandemic is in full bloom, experts have confusions, research is in infancy, findings are variable, then it’s better to seek advice from experts, well, but experts themselves need to coordinate and take a moderate view.
Ahmad Kashmiri
ahmadkashmiri@gmail.com
B Pharma