Travel Yoga: 14 Tips for Doing Yoga On-The-Go

Photo: Getty Images

Relaxation is paramount for a successful trip—even if said trip is jetting off to a busy city on business. But between wedging yourself into cramped coach class, sitting for hours on a train, and the stress that comes with airport security or exploring a new destination, travel can wreak havoc on your peace of mind—not to mention your body. That’s where yoga can help.

“Traveling takes a toll on your mind and body,” says Jamie Kent, the founder of Yoga Download—an online yoga studio committed to helping people practice yoga anywhere, at any time, in the world. “We don’t always eat well on the road, we keep weird hours, it’s hard on the immune system, and it can be mentally taxing. Yoga can be a great way to restore balance.”

Yoga Download has advanced and rigorous classes, by even taking a few mindful minutes to breathe deeply can be helpful. “Finding this centering moment everyday will not only calm us down on a business trip, but it will enhance our experiences on vacations: allowing us to recharge and create meaningful memories.”

Savitri Talahatu, the Wellness Director at Bali’s Spa Village Resort Tembok and a yoga teacher with more than 30 years of experience expresses a very similar belief. “Travelers practicing yoga and meditation are able to feel at home everywhere they go. When they are relaxed, they will be able to experience the moment more fully.”

To find your inner yogi, relax those cramped muscles, and feel refreshed during any leg of your journey, try one of these expert tricks and trips:
Bring the Right Gear

“I am a light packer,” says Sky Meltzer, the CEO of Manduka yoga accessories, “and always make sure I grab my Manduka eKO Superlite Travel Mat.” This grippy mat weighs in at about two pounds and folds into a neat square, about the size of an iPad.

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Designate “Yoga Time”

Make an “important reservation for your own health and happiness,” suggests Kent. Whether it’s for 20 or 120 minutes, whether you’re on a beach or confined to a hotel room, find the class on Yoga Download that’s right for your time and set-up.

Find Balance

Even in the most cramped quarters (we’re looking at you, middle seat) you can still cross your knees, grab onto the opposite armrest, and twist. Breathe deeply, allowing yourself to turn deeper into the pose. And don’t forget to repeat on the other side. A seated spinal twist, or ardha matsyendrasana, will help stretch your spine.

Take a Stroll

Talahatu recommends a series of movements while on a plane to relax, stretch, and improve blood flow. In addition to shoulder raises, hugging your knees to your chest, and stretching your arms over your head—fingers laced and palms up—don’t forget to get up often and go for a walk. “It’s not a yoga pose,” Talahatu says, “but your circulation will be better.”

Create Intention

“Give yourself 10 minutes a day,” recommends Meltzer. “Sit with your eyes closed, focus on your breath, and create an intention for the day.” This will not only help you relax, but it will also help you set goals and plans for the day ahead and your trip at large.

Join the Local Community

No matter where in the world you are, chances are, there’s a yoga studio nearby. Using apps like ClassPass, a monthly membership program designed to connect active travelers with fitness classes in cities across the globe, you can seek out some zen and connect with local yogis.

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Look Beyond the Studio

“It’s fun to practice in new places,” says Kent. “See the local park, [check out] the hotel gym, or do yoga in an area unique to the community.” Because Yoga Download classes can be played on your mobile phone, you can get down dog just about anywhere.

Improvise Props

“You [can] use a saraong-type scarf as your yoga mat, or a bath towel in your hotel room,” Talahatu suggests. “Rolled up towels are good for block replacements.” When you’re practicing in unusual or unknown places, you’ll want to get creative.

Change Your Perspective

“My go-to-pose is a handstand because it’s an invigorating inversion—it provides a natural energy boost,” says Meltzer. “It’s not only my favorite, but it can be done anywhere.” Or, almost anywhere. We don’t recommend trying this one in the aisle of the cabin when the pilot has turned on the seatbelt sign.

Try the Hotel Classes

Plenty of hotels have jumped on the fit wagon and are offering fitness classes (including yoga, of course) to guests. At the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, for example, you can try aerial yoga, using silk hammocks instead of mats.

Calm Your Nerves

“I prefer poses that are grounding (seated and supine) or inward driven (forward bends),” says Talahatu. “Being on the road, although it’s exciting, can be taxing to the nervous system.”

Keep it Clean

If you’re going to utilize airport terminal benches to help with your asanas make sure to clean up with hand sanitizer after. For borrowed mats—or the hotel room floor—pack a yoga towel. They’re lightweight, and much more pleasant to put your face on.

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Be Mindful

Incorporate other tenants of yoga throughout your trip. Be conscious about drinking and eating as well as possible (try packing your own food for the flight and skipping sugary cocktails at the hotel bar) and keep an eye on your posture. Make sure you’re not slouching in any of your photos.

Try a Yoga Retreat

Many hotels and resorts now host specialized yoga retreats. “People claim they’ve literally changed their lives,” says Talahatu. “A facilitator will hold you accountable,” she says, “and all of your needs (yoga, meditation, meditation, and meals) have been taken care of—so you’ll be able to focus on your practice, be in the moment, relax, and release.” At the Spa Village Resort Tembok, Bali, a three-night yoga and wellness retreat includes daily Kundalini yoga, meditation, and wellness workshops, three spa treatments, and activities including a fitness circuit, creativity walk, and yoga swing.

This article originally appeared on travelandleisure.com.

The world’s most influential travel brand, Travel + Leisure, offers insider access to destinations around the globe. Get more info at Travel + Leisure.

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Poorer Black Patients Have Lower Survival From Esophageal Cancer

FRIDAY, Jan. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Blacks with low incomes who are diagnosed with esophageal cancer don’t survive as long as whites with the disease, a new study finds.

“In lower socioeconomic groups, outcomes for esophageal cancer vary by race, but not in higher socioeconomic groups. This has implications for all sorts of cancers, not just esophageal cancer, and should be further examined to eliminate health care disparities,” said study senior author Dr. Matthew Hartwig. He is assistant professor of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

“Our study suggests that disparities in survival for esophageal cancer is less likely due to underlying genetic or medical reasons, and more likely due to disparities in health care,” Hartwig said in a Duke news release. He added that based on these findings, more resources should be focused on ways to alleviate these health disparities.

The researchers reviewed U.S. national data on more than 6,100 people with esophageal cancer who had surgery for their disease. In the study, 5 percent who had surgery were black.

Study lead author Dr. Loretta Erhunmwunsee conducted the research while at Duke. “Surgery is part of the combination treatment that is considered optimal,” she said in the news release. “One of the findings of the research is that black patients were much less likely than white patients to undergo surgery,” she added. Erhunmwunsee is now assistant professor of surgery at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif.

Overall, black patients lived a median of 33 months after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer. White patients lived a median of 46 months, according to the study.

When the researchers considered patients’ incomes, they found the median survival among the highest earning black patients was 52 months. For the highest earning white patients, median survival after diagnosis was 61 months, the researchers said.

The study revealed the biggest differences in survival when the researchers looked at those with the lowest incomes. Median survival for low-income black patients was 26 months, the study said. For low-income white patients, median survival was 40 months.

Erhunmwunsee said the finding that black patients are more likely to die sooner after esophageal cancer surgery isn’t new.

“But our study adds to this finding, showing that black patients are most vulnerable when they are poor and that they may actually be protected when they have higher socioeconomic status. This finding suggests that targeting socioeconomic differences may help combat racial health disparities,” she explained.

The research was presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in Phoenix. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Cancer Society provides more information on esophageal cancer.

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Resistance to HIV Drug Growing, Study Finds

FRIDAY, Jan. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — HIV resistance to the antiretroviral drug tenofovir (Viread) is increasingly common, a new study finds.

The researchers said their finding is surprising and alarming because the drug plays a major role in treating and preventing infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“Tenofovir is a critical part of our armamentarium against HIV, so it is extremely concerning to see such a high level of resistance to this drug,” study author Dr. Ravi Gupta, from the department of infection and immunity at University College London in England, said in a university news release.

“It is very potent drug with few side effects, and there aren’t any good alternatives that can be deployed using a public health approach. Tenofovir is used not only to treat HIV but also to prevent it in high-risk groups, so we urgently need to do more to combat the problem of emerging resistance,” Gupta said.

Resistance often occurs when patients don’t take their drugs as directed. To prevent resistance, people need to take the drugs correctly about 85 percent to 90 percent of the time, the researchers said.

For the study, the investigators looked at more than 1,900 HIV patients worldwide who had uncontrolled HIV despite taking antiretroviral drugs. Tenofovir-resistant HIV strains were found in 60 percent of patients in sub-Sahara Africa, the researchers found. That compares to just 20 percent of patients in Europe with tenofovir-resistant strains, the researchers said.

About-two thirds of patients with tenofovir-resistant HIV also had resistance to both other drugs used in their therapy. This suggests that their treatment was totally compromised, the study authors said.

In sub-Sahara Africa, up to 15 percent of HIV patients treated with tenofovir-based drug combinations will develop resistance to tenofovir in the first year of treatment, and this rate is likely to rise over time, the researchers estimated.

They added that tenofovir-resistant HIV strains could be passed on to other people and become more widespread, potentially weakening global efforts to control HIV.

It’s not clear how likely drug-resistant strains of HIV are to spread. If these strains were less effective at spreading, Gupta said the researchers should’ve seen lower levels of the HIV virus in people with the resistant strain. But, that wasn’t the case.

“We found that virus levels were no lower in individuals with the resistant strain and were high enough to be fully infectious. We certainly cannot dismiss the possibility that resistant strains can spread between people and should not be complacent. We are now conducting further studies to get a more detailed picture of how tenofovir resistant viruses develop and spread,” he concluded.

Findings from the study were published Jan. 28 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about HIV infection treatment.

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Suicide, Drugs Only Partly to Blame for Rising Deaths of Middle-Aged U.S. Whites

FRIDAY, Jan. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Death rates among middle-aged white Americans were higher than expected in 2014, likely because progress against common killers such as diabetes and heart disease has halted, a new study contends.

Substance abuse and suicide rates among white adults ages 45 to 54 have risen, but not enough to explain why death rates in this group have shifted from their historical decline, according to the Commonwealth Fund report released Jan. 29.

If death rates in this group had followed past patterns, they would have fallen 1.8 percent a year between 1999 and 2014. Instead, they rose, the new study found.

“We are accustomed to making progress against diseases. We learn how to prevent them and how to treat them and, as we do that, fewer people die from them,” Commonwealth Fund President Dr. David Blumenthal, a study co-author, said in a news release.

“For middle-aged whites, that progress has stalled and even reversed for some conditions. We need to find out why this is happening,” he added. “However, maintaining and improving access to health care remains important, especially for lower-income people in states that have not expanded Medicaid.”

The gap between expected and actual death rates occurred in all states, but was largest in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia, the researchers reported. In those states, actual death rates were between 60 percent and 76 percent higher than expected. In West Virginia, the death rate among whites ages 45 to 54 is the highest since 1980.

The gap was smallest in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Illinois, where there was a slight decrease in middle-aged white adult death rates between 1999 and 2014.

Deaths from substance abuse and suicide rose among middle-aged whites between 1999 and 2014. But, those two causes accounted for only about 40 percent of the gap between expected and actual death rates, the researchers said.

Sixty percent of the gap was because death rates from nearly all leading causes of death — such as diabetes, heart and lung disease — didn’t fall as expected, they noted.

The researchers suggest another contributor to the gap: “The excess deaths among middle-aged whites could be due in large part to the erosion in their socioeconomic standing. On a range of social and economic indicators, middle-aged whites have been falling behind in the 21st century,” they wrote.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians discusses healthy living.

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Boys Victims of Dating Violence, Too

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Jan. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Contrary to what many people may think, teenage boys commonly suffer dating violence — including physical and emotional abuse, a new U.S. government study finds.

The study focused on teens considered to be at high risk for dating violence — those who had suffered or witnessed violence at home or in their neighborhoods.

It turned out that boys were about as likely as girls to say they’d been victims of some form of dating violence. The pattern was also corroborated by girls’ reports: They commonly admitted to being perpetrators.

“To the average person, this is probably surprising,” said Monica Swahn, a professor of epidemiology at Georgia State University who has studied dating violence.

“Parents and pediatricians may underestimate how common dating violence is, and how often boys are victims,” said Swahn, who was not involved in the study.

A number of national surveys have found that U.S. girls are far more often the victims of dating violence than boys — particularly in terms of physical injuries.

But the new study conflicts with those findings, said lead researcher Dennis Reidy, of the division of violence prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“One potential reason is that we looked at a high-risk population, and not a nationally representative sample,” Reidy said.

Regardless, he added, the study points out that boys can be victims, too.

“We don’t want to get locked into the mindset that boys are always the perpetrators and girls are always the victims,” Reidy said.

The findings are based on more than 1,100 kids ages 11 to 17 who were surveyed about a wide range of dating violence. They were asked not only about physical abuse, but also how often they’d been sexually victimized — including having a boyfriend or girlfriend pressure them to have sex, or spread “sexual rumors” about them.

The researchers also asked about psychological and emotional abuse — like being yelled at, threatened or called names.

Overall, almost 11 percent of boys said they’d been physically abused by a dating partner at least three times. That compared with slightly less than 8 percent of girls. And a similar percentage of girls and boys — around 4 percent — said they’d been injured.

When it came to psychological abuse, 29 percent of boys and almost 34 percent of girls said they’d been victimized at least three times. Slightly more than 14 percent of boys and 12 percent of girls said they’d been sexually victimized that many times.

The findings on sexual victimization might sound particularly surprising, Reidy said. But, he added, it may relate to the survey questions, which asked about sexual “coercion,” rather than rape.

The researchers found that some patterns varied by age. Older girls tended to report more sexual victimization than boys, for example. They also admitted inflicting physical injuries on a dating partner more often than older boys did.

But Swahn said it’s not clear what to make of those patterns, since the study did not follow kids over time. “I’d be cautious about interpreting the age-related findings,” she said. “You need to follow the same kids over time to see whether their behavior changes.”

Reidy said more research is needed to confirm the current findings, which were published online Jan. 29 in the journal Pediatrics. But for now, he said, adults need to be aware that dating violence affects girls and boys — and it starts at an early age.

“Kids are dating at an age that’s younger than you might think,” Reidy said, “and dating violence is an issue much earlier than you might expect.”

Swahn agreed. “We probably need to start education and prevention in middle school,” she said.

Schools are probably the best place to reach kids, Reidy said. And parents, of course, have a “big role,” he added. They can talk to their kids about how to manage romantic relationships, and try to be good role models in their own behavior.

But for kids from violent homes or neighborhoods, school and community programs can be crucial.

“These kids need help in learning what a healthy relationship is,” Swahn said. “And right now, we have very limited resources for them.”

Reidy agreed. But he stressed that the study findings don’t mean only disadvantaged kids suffer or perpetrate dating violence.

“We know from national studies that about 10 percent of kids experienced sexual dating violence in the past year, and 10 percent experienced physical violence,” Reidy said. “So this is a problem everywhere.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on teen dating violence.

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Study Links Diabetes, Obesity in Moms-to-Be to Higher Autism Risk in Kids

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Jan. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Mothers-to-be who are both obese and diabetic have a higher risk of giving birth to a child with autism than healthy women, a new study suggests.

The two conditions in combination nearly quadrupled the risk that a child would receive an autism diagnosis, said researchers who looked at more than 2,700 mother-child pairs.

Individually, maternal obesity or diabetes was linked to twice the odds of giving birth to a child with autism compared to mothers of normal weight without diabetes, the study found.

“The finding is not a total surprise,” said study author Dr. Xiaobin Wang, director of the Center on Early Life Origins of Disease at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “Many studies have shown that maternal obesity and diabetes have an adverse impact on developing fetuses and their long-term metabolic health.”

“Now we have further evidence that maternal obesity and diabetes also impact the long-term neural development of their children,” added Wang.

The study doesn’t prove that obesity and diabetes in tandem actually cause the autism, however. It only found an association.

The study, which tracked more than 2,700 births, adds to evidence that autism risk may start before birth, the researchers said.

In the United States, more than one-third of women of reproductive age are obese, while almost 10 percent struggle with diabetes, the study authors said in background notes.

Prevalence of autism — now affecting 1 in 68 U.S. kids — has skyrocketed since the 1960s, alongside the incidence of obesity and diabetes in women of reproductive age, the authors point out.

Their study, published online Jan. 29 in the journal Pediatrics, involved children born at Boston Medical Center between 1998 and 2014.

All the babies’ mothers were interviewed one to three days following delivery, with their obesity and diabetes status noted. In turn, their babies were tracked for an average of six years.

Almost 4 percent of the babies were diagnosed on the autism spectrum. About 5 percent had some form of intellectual disability, and nearly one-third were diagnosed with another developmental disability. Some were diagnosed with more than one condition.

Besides quadrupling autism risk, the combination of maternal obesity and diabetes was also linked to a similarly higher risk for giving birth to a child with an intellectual disability, the investigators said. However, most of the increased risk for intellectual disability was seen among babies who were simultaneously diagnosed with autism.

Along with pre-pregnancy diabetes, gestational diabetes — a form that develops during pregnancy — was also linked to a higher risk of an autism diagnosis.

Wang said more study will be needed before saying definitively that the combination of maternal obesity and diabetes actually causes autism.

But Andrea Roberts, a research associate at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, suggested otherwise.

“I think in this case it probably is causal,” she said. “And therefore if women are able to change their weight status and avoid diabetes they might actually prevent the increase in autism risk in their children.”

Roberts isn’t blaming individual mothers, however. “In terms of casting blame, I would say that when you see a massive increase of obesity over the past 30 years it’s hard to say it’s an individual’s fault or problem. This is a societal issue.”

She likened the ready access to junk food to the availability of cigarettes years ago. “When I was a kid there used to be vending machines with cigarettes in them that were in the lobbies of restaurants. And vending machines with junk food is pretty comparable,” she said.

“So even though the problem arises from an individual’s behavior, it does not necessarily mean that the solution to the problem is at an individual level,” Roberts said.

Wang doesn’t want to cast blame on mothers either. “Rather, we hope that our research findings can translate into positive public health messages that will increase the awareness of the importance of healthy weight among future parents, pregnant women and health care providers,” he said.

More information

There’s more on maternal health and infant health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Why Health Cover Star Cassey Ho Will Never Go On Another Diet

Photo: Getty Images

Health cover star Cassey Ho has made a life-altering pledge. In a new video on her site Blogilates, the YouTube sensation vowed to “never, ever, ever, ever go on a diet again.” And it gets better. She invited her 2.8 million subscribers to quit dieting too—because, she said, “I want us all to live a healthy and fulfilled life that is not based around the way that we look.”

To put her decision into context, Cassey opened up to her fans for the first time about her struggle with “a type of eating disorder.” It all started when she entered a bikini competition in 2012. For eight weeks, the fitness pro exercised five hours a day on less than 1,000 calories, and consumed only a handful of foods: chicken breast, broccoli, egg whites, tilapia, and protein powder. Her personal trainer weighed her before every workout, she said.

RELATED: Cassey How Tells You How to Get Strong and Lean in 2016

Casey knew that what she was doing wasn’t good for her body. She was cranky, and “cloudy.” But she couldn’t stop. “I was like a different Cassey,” she explained. “I was so vanity-focused at the time and determined to get flat abs and a six pack.”

After the competition was over, her obsessive behavior continued. She was working out and eating clean, but for all the wrong reasons. “I was frightened of bananas and I just didn’t want to touch a grape because I thought it would make me fat.” This went on for a year and a half, until she finally realized she needed to make some changes.

Cassey decided to share her story now to drive home her message that dieting—restricting yourself, and essentially starving yourself—isn’t sustainable, and therefore not part of a healthy lifestyle. To get fit in the true sense of the word, you need to find balance.

RELATED: Take the 30-Day Total Body Challenge with Cassey Ho

“Exercising for me isn’t about weight loss,” she explained, “It’s about feeling good and that high I get after the workout that motivates me to be a better businesswoman, a better person, and better instructor, every single day.”

Check out her video below.

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5 Eyebrow Mistakes You’re Probably Making

The shape and shading of your eyebrows can make or break a look. “When your brows are on point, you put your best face forward,” says Zoey Van Jones, founder of the Zoey Van Jones Brow Studio in Los Angeles. But what you might think is perfecting your brows could be making them look worse. Here, Van Jones shares the five most common eyebrow blunders she sees, and the best way to correct them.

Using one color to fill in the whole brow

To create a more natural-looking full brow, try using two shades to fill them in. Since the front half of the brow is usually already pretty full, the tail (from the arch to the end) should always be filled in with a darker shade so it matches the front. Start from the arch to the end of the brow with the darker shade, then fill in the front half with a slightly lighter hue. This makes the brow look even all the way across in a very natural way. Try Zoey Van Jones Brow Shadow Duo ($22; birchbox.com), which pairs two complimentary shades in one compact.

Filling in brows from the inside out

As mentioned above, most women need more definition on the second half of their brows—but they tend to fill in the front of the brow first. When that happens, they usually end up over-shading and are left with a brow that makes them look like they’re pissed (RBF anyone?). Instead, start at the end of the brow with a heavier hand then ease up on the pressure as you get closer to the inside. This is also a good trick if you’re using a pencil to shade and want to achieve the look of using two colors.

RELATED: 4 Ways to Get Bolder, Thicker Eyebrows

Tweezing bare brows

As tempting as it is to pull out the tweezers when your skin is fresh out of the shower, don’t do it! Always fill in your brows before taking a tweezer to them. When your brows are “naked,” every hair can start to look like a stray, and that’s when you over-pluck. When plucking, make sure you use tweezers with an angled tip like the Tweezerman Mini Slant Tweezer ($16; sephora.com) to get the best grip on hairs without causing pain.

Using the old pencil trick to find your starting point

By now you’ve probably tried (or at least heard of) placing a pencil on the outside of your nose to find the perfect spot to start your brows. But that trick has been around for years, and brow shape trends have evolved since then. Instead of placing the pencil on the outside of your nose, hold it on top of the highest point of your nostril—for most this would be right where your nostril connects to your nose. Point it straight up in line with your eyebrows; this is where the hair should start. If that spot’s bare, fill it in lightly with a shadow or pencil like Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz ($21; sephora.com), using the spooley to buff out the color after making strokes.

RELATED: These Before-and-After Photos Prove Good Eyebrows Change Everything

Threading

Beauty fads come and go, and in the eyebrow department, that would be threading. While it’s great for the upper lip, it pulls out too much hair too quickly for the precision that’s needed on eyebrows. Instead, if you want someone to groom your brows for you, then have a reputable esthetician tweeze or wax your brows.

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Worldwide Boost in Breast-Feeding Could Save 800,000 Lives: Study

THURSDAY, Jan. 28, 2016 (HealthDay News) — If nearly all women worldwide breast-fed their infants and young children, there would be about 800,000 fewer children’s deaths and 20,000 fewer breast cancer deaths a year, researchers report.

That decrease in children’s deaths is equivalent to 13 percent of all deaths in children younger than 2 years of age, the study authors reported in a two-part series published online Jan. 28 in The Lancet.

The researchers also said that current breast-feeding practices cost the world’s economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

“There is a widespread misconception that the benefits of breast-feeding only relate to poor countries. Nothing could be further from the truth,” series author Cesar Victora, of Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil, said in a journal news release.

“Our work for this series clearly shows that breast-feeding saves lives and money in all countries, rich and poor alike. Therefore, the importance of tackling the issue globally is greater than ever,” Victora added.

Only one in five children in high-income countries is breast-fed for 12 months, the researchers said. And, only one in three children in low- and middle-income countries is exclusively breast-fed for the first 6 months.

This means that millions of children and women don’t receive the full benefits offered by breast-feeding, which has been shown to be healthy for both mothers and children, the study authors said.

In a detailed worldwide analysis, the researchers identified a number of benefits of breast-feeding. For example, breast-feeding lowers the risk of sudden infant death in high-income countries by more than one-third, they said.

The study also found that breast-feeding could prevent about half of all cases of diarrhea and one-third of respiratory infections in low- and middle-income countries.

Breast-feeding reportedly also boosts children’s intelligence and may protect them against obesity and diabetes later in life, the researchers said. Among mothers, long-term breast-feeding reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, the researchers added.

The investigators also estimated that poorer thinking skills among children who aren’t breast-fed cost the global economy about $302 billion in 2012. The loss in high-income countries alone was $231 billion, the study concluded.

Increasing breast-feeding rates for infants younger than 6 months to 90 percent in the United States, China and Brazil, and to 45 percent in the United Kingdom, would lower treatment costs of common childhood illnesses — such as pneumonia, diarrhea and asthma. This could save health care systems about $2.5 billion in the United States, $29.5 million in the United Kingdom, $224 million in China and $6 million in Brazil, according to the study.

Despite the many benefits of breast-feeding, rates are low, especially in high-income countries, the study showed.

“Breast-feeding is one of the few positive health behaviors that is more common in poor than richer countries, and within poor countries, is more frequent among poor mothers,” Victora explained.

“The stark reality is that in the absence of breast-feeding, the rich-poor gap in child survival would be even wider. Our findings should reassure policymakers that a rapid return on investment is realistic and feasible, and won’t need a generation to be realized,” he said in the news release.

Reasons for low breast-feeding rates include poor promotion and support of breast-feeding, and aggressive marketing and rising sales of infant formula, the study authors said.

“There is a widespread misconception that breast-milk can be replaced with artificial products without detrimental consequences,” Victora said.

“The evidence outlined in the series, contributed by some of the leading experts in the field, leaves no doubt that the decision not to breast-feed has major long-term negative effects on the health, nutrition and development of children and on women’s health,” Victora concluded.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women’s Health has more on breast-feeding.

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Sleepless Nights Might Raise Women’s Type 2 Diabetes Risk

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 28, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women who have chronic sleep problems may have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Harvard researchers report.

Problems such as trouble falling or staying asleep, getting less than six hours of sleep, frequent snoring, sleep apnea or rotating shift work appear to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, the researchers said. They found that women who reported trouble falling or staying asleep all or most of the time had 45 percent greater odds of developing type 2 diabetes.

Women who had four sleep problems had more than four times the odds of developing type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.

“Women with sleeping difficulty, especially when also having other conditions, should be aware of potential higher risk of diabetes,” said lead researcher Dr. Yanping Li, a research scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

“Doctors should pay more attention to the potential diabetes risk of women who have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep,” she said.

Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, emphasized that the new findings only show an association between sleep problems and type 2 diabetes, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

However, he said it’s plausible that disrupted sleep could increase the risk of type 2 diabetes because sleep problems play havoc with the body’s hormones.

“Not sleeping well affects the circadian rhythm regulated by hormones that are so important for metabolism and involved in control of blood sugar. Thus, it is not surprising that sleep disorders are associated with obesity and diabetes,” said Zonszein, who was not part of the study.

The report was published Jan. 28 in the journal Diabetologia.

For the study, Li and her colleagues collected data on more than 133,000 U.S. women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study between 2000 and 2014. At the start of the study, none of the women had diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

Over 10 years of follow-up, more than 6,400 women developed type 2 diabetes. Women with one sleep problem had a 45 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the researchers found.

For each additional problem, the risk increased again — twice for two sleep problems, three times for three problems and four times for four problems, Li said.

When the researchers took into account other factors, the risk for diabetes dropped. For example, looking at women with sleep problems who weren’t obese or didn’t have high blood pressure or depression, the risk was 44 percent. The risk decreased to 33 percent after reviewing revised data on weight, the study said.

“People who sleep well are healthier,” Zonszein said. People who are depressed, stressed by work or who are obese will likely develop more diabetes, he said.

“In our industrialized society this is common,” Zonszein said. “Many people don’t get a good sleep as they are watching TV, or are in front of a computer, or a smartphone screen all day and all night,” he said. “We have lost our natural good sleep that consists of work during the day, evening relaxation and a good night’s sleep.”

Losing this pattern disturbs a normal physiological process in which certain hormones normally raise blood sugar levels before we are ready to work, he said.

“These hormones include glucagon, epinephrine, growth hormone and cortisol, which all work in tandem with insulin and play an important role in regulation of sugar, and this normal hormonal ‘rhythm-icity’ is lost in our society, and certainly may be a cause of diabetes and obesity,” Zonszein said.

More information

To learn more about type 2 diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

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