Ex-banker uses pressure cooker steam to cure post COVID symptoms

A pipe is connected to a pressure cooker which extends into a bathroom where patients are asked to inhale the steam for 30 minutes.

Besides inhaling the steam, the patient is asked to take mud therapy where black soil mixed with lemon juice is applied to his body and he is asked to rub it on his body for smooth blood circulation, says Pukhraj Vohra (65) who is operating a small naturopathy centre on the Rajasthan-MP border in Ratlam district.

Many patients from the neighbouring districts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra are visiting this centre to deal with their post COVID challenges. The line of treatment is quite different here. As soon as a patient enters this naturopathy centre, he is given juice made of aamla and different herbs after which starts the steam session, a patient told IANS.

Worried about the pandemic and its consequences, Vohra has used his knowledge gathered over the last three decades to help the people. He has been operating this three-storeyed naturopathy centre on his own, running here and there, listening to the stories of patients, bringing them out of depression, giving them Reiky treatment and many other such things.

"We hug our patients with warmth and treat them. Wearing masks and following social distancing doesn't fall in our system of naturopathy as what matters in COVID cases is immunity. We believe in building immunity so that the body can itself kill the coronavirus," he says.

Vohra questions why steam treatment is not given to all patients when it has a proven history of killing this virus. The high dose medicines are affecting the people's vital organs and hence steam sessions should be made mandatory in COVID hospitals, he adds.

Vohra was working in UCO Bank till a few years back. He took VRS to start his own naturopathy centre. He has a big library in his house which has a variety of books on different aspects of naturopathy.

Aniket, 20, who had fever and breathing problems, says, "Hospitals looked like a challenge for me to go as there were negative reports coming in. I isolated myself and contacted Vohra who gave me regular steam sessions at home with mud therapy along with Aloe Vera, Giloa and Aamla juice. The oxygen level which was 84 shot up to 98 in three days and the fever went away too. This centre has a unique feature. It helped me to stand on my own in just three days. They applied mud with Rai on my chest and all the congestion went away in just a week," he says.

Aniket, speaking to IANS, said that "Doctors also doubted if I could be cured as my lung infection was quite severe. Testing was not so smooth in July and hence I did not go for it. But Vohraji helped me get better with each passing day."

Herbal juices, steam session, guava juice and jaggery lemon tea -- this is how the treatment goes at the centre. Many patients are now visiting this centre.

"I had a bad cough, depression, breathing trouble and other such ailments, however, all such symptoms vanished in four to five days after visiting here," says Anita (name changed) who tested negative a month back.

There are many other patients who have found no solace at medical centres and have visited this place to get cured.

"Naturopathy is a science which lost its sheen to allopathy. But COVID it seems has come to remind people of nature and to teach them to value it. They are back to their lost roots which is something quite positive in these testing times," says Vohra adding that each person should know how he should boost his immunity.

In fact, many patients after recovering are adopting this steam therapy in their bathrooms after going back to their homes in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi.

Kalpit, another patient who underwent regular sessions, went back to Gujarat and installed the same steam system in his bathroom. "I had a cough which turned into asthma; after taking regular doses, I am ok now, but I wanted to be regular and hence installed this system," he said.