health/fitness

DID YOU KNOW?

About one-third of all employed U.S. adults typically do not take all their vacation days each year.

Workers in western states are more likely than those elsewhere in the country not to take all of their allotted time off. Four in 10 employed adults in the western United States leave vacation days unused.

HOW TO COPE

A vacation from work is a chance to get rested, recharged, re-invigorated. In stressful economic times, escaping the office is more important than ever, says David Kaplan of the American Counseling Association. Here's his advice:

It's rare when Phyllis Davenport misses the annual reunion in her family's east Texas hometown. But this year, the single mom and her teenage daughter stayed home.

As a 25-year veteran of California's Department of Motor Vehicles, it wasn't a matter of having enough vacation time stockpiled.

Not only do methamphetamine users have to struggle to overcome the insidious chemical effects of the powerful drug, but they also must deal with the perceived hopelessness of their addiction.

Big, employer-paid health policies are still the bread and butter of the insurance industry, but that's not the growth segment it used to be. Today, the industry's forward-thinkers are focusing on "retail" -- pushing products, policies and health advice directly to the consumer.

People who believe in astrology are convinced that constellations and other heavenly objects prominent in their birth month guide their fates.

Those systems are hardly scientific, but scientists continue to find evidence that the month, or season, that babies are born, or conceived, may have a significant effect on their lifetime health.

When she wasn't drawn to boys as a teenager, Cathy Roberts figured she was just shy. As she steered men away from her college bed, she convinced herself she wasn't ready. Later, when a therapist coaxed her along a path toward enjoying sex, she didn't even want to do the tamest of exercises.

Not long ago, Robert J. Steppler walked from his home to a little coffee shop nearby, ordered a green tea and chatted with the baristas.

While that may sound hardly worthy of note, for Steppler and others like him, it most certainly is.

Not long ago, Robert J. Steppler walked from his home to a little coffee shop nearby, ordered a green tea and chatted with the baristas.

While that may sound hardly worthy of note, for Steppler and others like him, it most certainly is.

A variation on the company doctor is emerging at big companies across the country, where businesses are sponsoring on-site medical centers to provide employees with free or low-cost healthcare.

In Oxnard, Calif., for instance, a large berry grower that employees scores of migrant and other workers adopted the approach at the start of the year.