Month: July 2014

The number of Californians without health insurance has been cut in half since the implementation of Obamacare, according to a survey published Thursday. The study by the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare research foundation, showed that about 11 percent of adults in the most populous U.S. state were uninsured as of last month, down from 22 percent in the summer of 2013. California was the first state to pass legislation to set up its own marketplace allowing consumers and small businesses to purchase highly regulated coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and the state has also expanded its Medicaid program, providing insurance to more low-income residents.

By Madeleine Thomas SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – An alleged prostitute suspected of killing a California technology executive by injecting him with a fatal dose of heroin aboard his yacht off the coast of Santa Cruz has been charged with manslaughter, authorities said Thursday. Alix Catherine Tichelman, 26, was arrested last week in connection with the November 2013 death of Forrest Hayes, an executive at Google Inc and a father of five. Her bond was set at $1.5 million, said Rafael Vazquez, assistant district attorney for the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office. Security camera footage from Hayes’ yacht showed Tichelman neglecting to help Hayes, 51, after she injected him with heroin and he fell unconscious, according to the Santa Cruz Police Department.

Feeling cynical and hostile toward others may double the risk of having a stroke in middle-aged and older adults, according to a study out Thursday. The research in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association, also found that depression and high stress increased stroke risk. These surveys assessed chronic stress, depressive symptoms, anger and hostility over two years, and low scores indicated a lesser frequency of these feelings. Researchers found that those with the highest hostility scores — measured by assessing a person's cynical expectations of other people's motives — were more than twice as likely to have a stroke or TIA, compared to the lowest scorers.

Health services in the occupied Palestinian territory are on the brink of collapse amid severe shortages in medicines and fuel for hospital generators, as the Gaza conflict with Israel deepens, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday. WHO appealed to donors for $40 million for essential healthcare supplies through year-end and a further $20 million towards the debt owed by the health ministry to East Jerusalem hospitals receiving cancer patients from Gaza and the West Bank. “The recent escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip raises concern about the ability of the government and the Ministry of Health of the occupied Palestinian territory to cope with the increased burden of medical emergencies on the health system, given the high levels of shortages of medicines, medical disposables and hospital fuel supplies, and rising healthcare debt,” WHO said in a statement.

You are the greatest resource of all. You possess a deep collection of unique and most likely untapped resources that can help you in your personal relationships, your business success, your health and wealth.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Photos of morbidly obese people alongside a news story about the health threat from being overweight may cause moderately heavy people to think they’re not at risk, a new study suggests. “I don’t know if we can realistically influence media choices,” said coauthor Fiona Gillison. Some stories included an image of an overweight model, others had a morbidly obese model and some had no image. A BMI of 30 or greater is considered obese and a BMI over 40 is severely or morbidly obese.

It's easy to feel weighed down by our workloads when we spend so much of our time each week at the office. However, there are ways for us to improve our well-being and stay motivated while on the clock — and more and more employers are paying attention to them. Turnstone general manager Brian Shapland joined HuffPost Live host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani today to discuss the six dimensions of workplace well-being and how integrating them into your office environment can make you a happier and healthier employee. Mindfulness sits at the top of the list. "We're all feeling in this 24/7,