With School Near, It’s Time To Get Children’s Immunizations Done
California's strict vaccination law is still controversial among some parents. In other public health news, music may help some dementia and Parkinson's patients and reports on the impact of drinking and work.
Mercury News:
Check Your Kids' Vaccine Record As School Year Starts
August — ouch — is National Immunization Awareness Month and the start of school for many, timely reminders why local and state public health officials are urging parents to make sure their children are up to speed with their vaccines, preventing diseases like measles and whooping cough that can easily spread in childcare and school settings. Actually, it’s not just a reminder, it’s the law — and one that got even tougher in California starting last summer when parents no longer were allowed to opt out of immunizations for their children, save for legitimate medical exemptions. (Seipel, 8/15)
KQED:
Can Joining A Band Fight Cognitive Decline? Just Ask ‘The 5th Dementia’
When you think of the debilitating, painful trauma of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, you probably don’t think of people climbing onstage to belt out feel-good classics from the Great American Songbook. But then you’re probably not thinking of The 5th Dementia, a Los Angeles group that keeps folks with neurodegenerative disease in the moment by playing music of the past — with help from a few teenage musicians. (Gilstrap, 8/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Drink To Your Health? It Depends On How Much Drinking You Do, Study Shows
This just in, and it’s definitive (for now): People who drink alcohol in moderation — especially older people, women and non-Latino white people — are less likely to die of any cause than are teetotalers or people who consume heavy doses of alcohol either on occasion or in an average week. In follow-up periods that hovered around eight years, moderate drinkers were no less likely than alcohol abstainers to die of cancer. But they were roughly a quarter less likely to die of heart disease or stroke than were people who never consumed alcohol. (Healy, 8/14)
NPR:
Work Can Be Stressful, Dangerous And Sometimes Great
If you think your job is more stressful than it should be, you're not alone. Americans work hard, and it takes a physical and mental toll, not to mention that it frequently cuts into personal time, according to a comprehensive survey on working conditions the nonpartisan RAND Corporation published Monday. But having a good boss and good friends on the job can make work feel less taxing. (Fulton, 8/14)