(From a personal communication)
Research studies reveal that
various forms of meditation and relaxation produce significant changes in body chemistry, blood pressure, and oxygen consumption that probably benefit physical, mental, and spiritual health.
However, the organization also called for more
research regarding the benefits of 6 vs 4 months of exclusive breastfeeding.25 Thus far, several
studies in industrialized countries
revealed that a shorter duration of breastfeeding increases the risk of common infectious diseases, such as respiratory and gastrointestinal tract infections.8, 19,24,26, — , 32 However, in these
studies,
various definitions of the exclusiveness of breastfeeding were used24, 27,28,30 or the combination of duration and exclusiveness of breastfeeding was not taken into account.8, 31
Reviewing
various documents from across the past 150 years —
research studies, government reports, encyclopedia entries, pronouncements of august organizations, teacher blogs, methods guides —
revealed that we educators have been pretty sloppy in our use of that term.