Your health: Strong core critical to balance

Work that core!

Your core includes muscles in your back, side, hips, pelvis and buttocks, as well as your abdominals. These muscles are critical to improving performance in almost any sport or activity, sidestepping debilitating back pain, and enhancing balance and stability.

According to Harvard Medical School, a strong, flexible core can help you:

Ÿ Ward off or ease low back pain.

Ÿ Ease the strain of everyday activities like housework, gardening and on-the-job tasks.

Ÿ Add power to sports and other pursuits.

Ÿ Increase agility when lifting, bending, turning or reaching.

Ÿ Improve balance and stability to prevent falls.

Ÿ Strengthen your abs with the support of strong back and hip muscles.

Vaccine facts, figures

The special vaccine issue of the journal Health Affairs includes an article about a survey that examined parental vaccine behaviors and concerns, reports The Washington Post.

“The good news is that almost all parents are getting their children vaccinated. But that doesn't necessarily mean all parents have a high level of confidence in those vaccines,” says the survey's lead author, Allison Kennedy, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 2 percent of parents said their children would receive none of the recommended vaccines, and 5 percent would give their children some but not all vaccines. Twenty-three percent of parents said that they had no concern about vaccines. Concerns among the rest ranged from children's suffering physical pain from shots to whether vaccines could cause autism.

Bad weather prep

All that summer heat can spawn lethal storms. And if the recent spate of devastating weather across the country hasn't persuaded you to prepare your family for a natural disaster, start now.

Start by preparing a family emergency kit and plan. The American Red Cross offers a list of things to pack in that kit — including an extra pair of prescription glasses and a spare set of car keys.

Here's an abbreviated list of items to pack: water, food, medications, clothing and bedding, sanitation supplies, tools (such as flashlights), important family documents and a first aid kit. For the full list, go to redcross.org and type “get a kit” in the search box. A related document on the site also walks you through all the steps you and your family should take in planning for a disaster.