Indonesians use risky 'train track therapy' cure for illness

In Jakarta, Indonesia, the act of laying across train lines to try to draw benefit from the low voltage electric currents, mistakenly believed to be running through them, is a popular craze amongst locals too poor to access traditional medical treatment, reports the UK’s The Telegraph.

Adults and children, inspired by a disabled Chinese man who supposedly laid down on the tracks to commit suicide but instead found himself cured, lay with their head across one track and their ankles across the other as trains rumble past on adjacent lines. These desperate measures come from the belief that the electric current will cure them of ailments and illnesses as it passes through their bodies.

The strange fad, dubbed 'track therapy', is popular despite it's apparent futileness — the actual tracks have no electric current passing through, the trains being charged by the lethally high voltage cables suspended above the trains.

Indonesian authorities have tried to put a stop to the craze, warning people of the dangers of straying onto train lines and threatening penalties of a three-month jail term and fines equivalent to $1900 for those who disregard the ban and continue track therapy.

"We have repeatedly urged them not to do it because it is very dangerous," railway spokesman Mateta Rizalulhaq told The Telegraph.

The advocates of track therapy may be trying to simulate the benefits of electric stimulation therapy, a form of physical therapy which uses electrical stimulation to treat muscle pain and spasms. Electric therapy can be administered by a professional therapist or through units designed for home use, such as the TENS machine.

There are three different types of electrical stimulation therapy; general, muscular, and transcutanous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).

• General electric therapy is used for alleviating pain and healing wounds.
• Muscular electrical stimulation aims to strengthen muscles by reducing muscle spasms.
• TENS is used to treat chronic pain.

Electric therapy improves the body's circulation and increases the possible range of motion. It has been used to treat a range of ailments from sprains and back pain to arthritis, sciatica and scoliosis.