June 28, 2015

Power Profile: Melissa Conley


"I am now the CEO of my own life."


June 21, 2015

The secrets to a healthy life

From Fortune

The secrets to a healthy life

By  Dean Ornish  JUNE 21, 2015

They say you are what you eat. In the world of medicine, that couldn’t be more true.

What we choose to eat has a powerful impact on both our internal and external environments. When we realize that something as primal as what we choose to put in our mouths each day makes an important difference in these crises, it empowers us and imbues these choices with meaning. If it’s meaningful, then it’s sustainable—and a meaningful life is a longer life.

For almost four decades, my colleagues and I at the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, have conducted clinical research proving the many benefits of comprehensive lifestyle changes. These include:

  • a whole foods, plant-based diet (naturally low in fat and refined carbohydrates);
  • stress management techniques (including yoga and meditation);
  • moderate exercise (such as walking); and
  • social support and community (love and intimacy).

In short—eat well, move more, stress less, and love more.

Many people tend to think of advances in medicine as high-tech and expensive, such as a new drug, laser, or surgical procedure. We often have a hard time believing that something as simple as comprehensive diet and lifestyle changes can make such a powerful difference in our lives—but they often do.

In our research, we have used high-tech, expensive, state-of-the-art scientific measure to prove the power of these simple, low-tech and low-cost interventions. These randomized controlled trials and other studies have been published in the leading peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals.

In addition to preventing many chronic diseases, these comprehensive diet and lifestyle changes can often reverse the progression of these illnesses.

We proved, for the first time, that lifestyle changes alone can reverse the progression of even severe coronary heart disease. There was even reversal after five years than after one year and 2.5 times fewer cardiac events. We also found that these lifestyle changes can reverse type 2 diabetes and may slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer.

Read more from Fortune >>




June 4, 2015

Working 9-to-5 becoming a less popular way to make a living

From YahooFinance


Working 9-to-5 becoming a less popular way to make a living
Is the future of working in going solo? More companies and workers are saying yes.

By Joseph Pisani, AP Business Writer
June 3, 2015

NEW YORK (AP) -- If you want an income, or you're an employer looking for help, it may be time to scrap the idea of the traditional 9-to-5 arrangement.

For workers, it's become easier and less risky to go solo. Affordable health insurance plans, which kept many workers shackled to traditional jobs, are more accessible because of the Affordable Care Act. And companies are increasingly open to hiring freelancers and independent contractors. Many say independent workers bring fresh ideas without the long-term commitment.

An industry dedicated to serving the companies that offer freelance and contract work and the people who fill those openings is growing. Gigs can be found at a number of websites, such as Upwork.com and Freelancer.com, or through hiring services that connect professional freelancers and companies. And companies that provide shared rented office space, such as WeWork, lets freelancers mingle with fellow contractors.

In 2013, 23 million people were self-employed, according the U.S. Census Bureau. That's up 1.2 percent from the year before and up about 24 percent from 2003. That number doesn't count self-employed people who may also hire employees.

"This isn't going away," says Brooke Borgen, co-owner of Canopy Advisory Group, a hiring company for freelancers in Denver. She started the business five years ago with co-owner Griffen O'Shaughnessy. They observed that companies needed a way to access independent workers while friends and colleagues were telling them they wanted to find ways to balance their work and personal lives. "More and more people want to have ownership over their career," Borgen says.

Henry W. Brown ditched his fledging advertising career 11 years ago, sick of spending 15 hours a day at work and having "no life." Now he works 30 hours a week, juggling about four projects a year and earns a salary in the six figures designing websites and apps. Brown has time for two-hour yoga sessions, midday bike rides around his New York City neighborhood and lunch dates with friends. He also has more time for passion projects: He spent a month at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand this year, and he started a Facebook page called TheDogmatic, posting photos of dogs in shelters to help get them adopted. He never plans to work for just one employer again.

"Everything about an office was such a waste of time to me," he says.

Read more from YahooFinance >>


June 3, 2015

Power Profile: Jie Gao

"After working for companies, I feel like I'm a machine and a robot, everyday repeating my routine life. I don't like that and I want a change in my life...."