And so it happened to Mr. Lai Singh Kang, a P.C.S. Retd. Deputy Commissioner, now living in retirement at Samrala, in Ludhiana district of Punjab. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease since 1957.
It assumed painful proportions in 1967, when he was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Jullunder district, Giving the history of his disease, Mr. Singh describes in his own words, “In 1957 I was Sub-divisional Magistrate at Mukatsar, now in Faridkot district of Punjab, when the outer parts of my thighs got benumbed.
Treatment by the doctors had no effect. I was rather told that my thighs will shrivel and will become bony. Regular massaging, exercise and running along the road did control the ailment to some extent.
But the disease went on spreading silently till 1967, when my anus failed to close, after I had defecated and cramps started in the muscles of my calves and there was swelling (odema) on my lower legs above the ankles”.
Mr. Lal Singh Kang, further observed, “In September 1967, there was a conference of world heart-specialists at Delhi. Their view was that a person should get out of breath at least once a day.
I used to take walk of two miles every morning. I used to run for a furlong to get out of breath and then walk a furlong to regain breath. This I repeated eight times. It checked my Arthritis to spread quickly.
While touring through villages in the official jeep as D.C., Jullunder, the back side of my buttocks touched a piece of iron in the seat of the jeep and went on rubbing with its contact during the jolting journey. In the evening I found the part swollen.
Doctor’s medicine gave me no relief. The government transferred me to Chandigarh as Secretary of a Board, where I developed rheumatic pains on the right side of my chest. I had several tests in the Post-graduate Institute hospital there, for my urine, excreta and blood pressure. No defect was found and they could not explain the cause of my pain.
One day I was reciting, as a matter of routine, the Sukhmani Sahib, constantly sitting with my back pressed against the protruding brick of a niche. After an hour I got up. I felt some itching and found that part of my back swollen.
To enhance the effect, I rubbed my back from the buttocks to the top of my neck with the brick. The back got swollen, but became normal in two days. I repeated the rubbing every two days with the result that my shoulders and my neck which were giving me constant pain, became normal and healthy. The doctors had suggested a collar for my neck, but that was not necessary now”.
Mr. Lal Singh Kang now got the idea that he could get relief from his rheumatism, by rubbing. So he started doing it with a round rod, then laying over more rods and moving up and down on them, to rub all parts of his body.
The result was that his anus started closing properly. He continued his research and found his health improving day by day. Then he thought of improving upon the method and making the treatment self-sufficient as far as possible.
As such he devised a wooden bed of 6′ x 3′ size and rods of sizes 1″ x 1.5″ x 3′ all over the bed such that the central rod was slightly higher, by 1.5″. Now he had retired and with his meagre pension he is maintaining a charitable institution in his own plot of land, where patients stay for a week or fortnight or more for treatment under his supervision.
A number of beds in different rooms are kept for patients to sleep on them and have their exercises under his guidance.