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| - A viral claim on social media states that as per research conducted by the USA's Harvard University, prostration in the form of sujood, a position that the body goes into during Islamic prayer, was found to be an "effective remedy for back pain."
(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here, here, and here.)
Is it true?: No, the claim is false.
While Harvard Health published a report about exercise and seeking treatment for back pain, they did not specify any particular position or method as the "medicine" or an "effective remedy" for it.
How did we find out the truth?: We used the search term 'Harvard back pain' on Google and social media platforms, which led us to an X post by Harvard Health, a platform which shares information from the Harvard Medical School.
The post was shared in August 2021.
We clicked on the link which elaborated on the topic. This led us to a 2020 report titled, "Babying your back may delay healing."
It spoke about back pain being a common issue, and that some people have a genetic predisposition to experiencing back pain than others.
Adding that 80 percent of their respondents had reported feeling back pain at least once in their lives, it provided several options to help manage or treat the issue.
These were listed as not taking "the pain lying down," treating it, strengthening oneself through movement and exercise, and seeking out physical therapy.
The report did not mention any specific exercise or position to remedy the issue, much less mention sujood posture as an effective solution to relieve back pain.
It is possible that the representative image used in this article may have misled people into believing that it depicted a posture to fix or address the issue.
Conclusion: A viral claim falsely states that Harvard University declared the sujood posture, practised during Islamic prayer, as a remedy for back pain.
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