Former cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu revealed on Friday that his wife, Navjot Kaur, successfully battled stage-4 cancer within just 40 days by adopting a simple dietary and lifestyle regimen. Sidhu shared that doctors had initially given her little to no hope of survival.
“People say you need to spend crores for treatment, but I’m telling you, turmeric, neem water, apple cider vinegar, and lemon water cost nothing. These are the remedies we used,” he said.
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Sidhu laid emphasis on the importance of avoiding sugar and carbohydrates and recommended intermittent fasting as part of the regimen.
“Her last meal was at 6:30 PM, and the first meal the following day was at 10:30 AM, starting with lemon water.”
“This treatment doesn’t cost any money. Cancer can be defeated. The same diet helped me too. I got rid of my fatty liver and lost 25 kg,” he remarked.
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“Doctors said she had no hope. The cancer had spread to her skin, with only a 3% chance of survival. One oncologist, who was the son of my friend and had come from America, said there was no chance at all,” he recalled.
Sidhu added that he decided to take matters into his own hands.
“I did my research, and I told my family we would start this new diet,” he revealed. “Cancer is inflammation. It gets you through milk, carbohydrates like wheat, refined sugar, cancer feeds on sugar.”
“My wife developed cancer when I was in jail. I didn’t know. I only came to know about it when she was operated on. Her journey since then is an open book. But today I really feel proud that she has been declared cancer-free. She went under chemotherapy. During which we had to marry our son and that time she missed many therapy sessions. Then we took her to the hospital. They said they have no chances. Then I started researching. I would read for hours. I would tell them should I start this diet they would say no. Then I realized I should start this diet,” Sidhu elaborated.
The claim found takers across social media with users saying Sidhu had revealed “something that everyone needs to know.”
Healthcare practitioners advise caution
Medical experts have strongly advised caution, saying that such claims lacked high-quality evidence to support them. They have urged the public not to delay or forgo conventional cancer treatment.
Tata Memorial Hospital Alumni (TMHA), comprising 262 oncologists, issued a formal statement on November 23, cautioning against misinformation circulating on social media.
“A video of a former cricketer describing his wife’s treatment for her breast cancer has been circulating widely on social media. 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 statements have no high quality evidence to support them. While research is ongoing for some of these products there is no clinical data currently to recommend their use as anti-cancer agents. We urge the public to not delay their treatment by following unproven remedies, but rather to consult a doctor, preferably a cancer specialist, if they have any symptoms of cancer. Cancer is curable if detected early and proven treatments for cancer include surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy,” the TMHA statement read.
Several other medical experts have also rubbished Sidhu’s claims, one of them likening his remarks to the actions of actor Poonam Pandey, who famously staged her own death to raise awareness about cervical cancer.
“Navjot Singh Sidhu does a Poonam Pandey,” former Director, NITI Aayog Dr. Urvashi Prasad wrote on Linkedin.
“Yesterday, Navjot Sidhu initially claimed that a specific diet cured his wife of Stage 4 cancer, despite medical experts stating that her chances of survival were slim. His press conference and Instagram reel went viral, prompting a response from the medical community and public health advocates, leading him to subsequently issue clarificatory tweets,” Dr Prasad posted.
“However, the damage was done, as misleading claims about the ‘miracle cure’ reached millions in a country with low health literacy. If India had a strict public health law, spreading such half-baked misinformation would be a criminal offense.”
Prasad added: “It must be emphasized that no evidence currently exists about any particular diet ‘curing’ cancer. Mr. Sidhu’s wife received all standard medical treatments (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and possibly immunotherapy too), making his claims highly misleading. Further, the term CURE should be used with extreme caution, especially in Stage 4 patients, as the absence of visible cancer on a scan does not guarantee that it has vanished & even a few cells remaining in the body can lead to a recurrence.”
She, however, acknowledged the value of dietary and lifestyle changes as a part of the cancer treatment.
“Certain fundamental health practices benefit everyone, cancer or no cancer: a balanced diet, regular exercise, sufficient sleep, and mental & emotional well-being, along with avoiding smoking & alcohol. However, it’s equally crucial to understand that these practices are not miracle cures,” she said.
Dr Mukharjee Madivada, senior interventional cardiologist and managing director, at Pulse Heart Center said that Sidhu’s wife had followed the proper cancer treatment at hospitals.
“Mr. Navjot Sidhu got his wife treated with cancer surgery, modern chemotherapy, and all that modern medicine has to offer. He also got his wife fasted. He credits his wife’s recovery to the fasting while not being grateful enough to acknowledge the benefit the modern medicine has done for his wife,” says Dr Madivada posted on X.
“Every person has his own sense of cause and effect. And every person has his own sense of gratitude. No problem with that. But what I would request from cancer patients is that please don’t stop medicines and getting surgery done because Sidhu sir told you to drink lemon water. Because he too didn’t. Please remember that one fact.”
Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist at Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad wrote on X: “To credit diet and healthy lifestyle alone for curing stage 4 metastatic cancer is misleading. Mr Sidhu has earlier posted about her surgery and radiation therapy. He has also posted that PET scan done in May 2024 did not show any evidence of cancer.”
“So, to claim now that 40 days of dietary modification has cured her cancer appears misleading. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy (as decided by the oncologists) form the cornerstone of cancer treatment. Healthy diet, including carbohydrate restriction and intermittent fasting, can play an excellent supportive role in healing of several diseases, including cancer,” Dr Kumar added in the post.
This story is republished from First Check as part of the Shakti Collective. Read the original story here.