Offering Namaz regularly can reduce back pain, reveals study
Five times a day, approximately 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide bow, kneel and place their heads on the ground in the direction of the holy city of Mecca.
The prayer, known as the Salat, is one of the five obligatory elements of the faith set forth by the holy book, the Qur'an.
According to a recent study, praying five times a day can work miracles for you in this world as well. A recently conducted study concluded that owing to the pivotal postures of sujood and ruku during Salah, the problem of lower back pain can be solved.
There's spiritual blessing and more when it comes to praying Salah. The Muslim prayer, which is offered five times a day and once a week in congregation with others, can reduce lower back pain. According to the study, if performed regularly, the postures of kneeling and bowing in the Muslim prayer can cure lower back pain and provide relief.
"One way to think about the movements is that they are similar to those of yoga or physical therapy intervention exercises used to treat low back pain," said Professor Mohammad Khasawneh from Binghamton University in the US.
"The kneeling posture (sujud) increases the elasticity of joints. It is recommended for these individuals to spend more time in the kneeling posture," Khasawneh added.
The experiments were carried out on Asian, American and Indian men and women using computer-generated models to understand the effects of prayer on a human body. The paper was titled 'An ergonomic study of body motions during Muslim prayer using digital human modeling'. The study has been published in the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
"Prayer can eliminate physical stress and anxiety, while there is also research that indicates prayer rituals can be considered an effective clinical treatment of neuro-musculoskeletal dysfunction," said Khasawneh.
According to reports, the scientists are looking to widen the scope of their experiments by studying the effects of the prayer on individual parts of a human being during prayer through the use of sensors and cameras.