For some people, a great vacation means ambling between hot tub and pool during the day and exerting no more effort than it takes to hoist a few Mai Tais after sundown. Then there are those who would rather run around a field with a bunch of other sports wannabes -- jumping, swinging, sliding, throwing and otherwise engaging in activities that most middle-aged fans enjoy only from their armchairs.
If you like your sports real rather than virtual, you'll find plenty of opportunities at camps, workshops and vacation destinations around the country, this season. None of the costs listed here includes transportation.
TEAM SPIRIT
If you're a baseball buff, take to the Field of Dreams for a long weekend of instruction and games, September 10 to 14. As they say in the movie, it's not heaven, it's Iowa -- Dyersville, to be exact. The Field of Dreams camp lets you test your mettle against former players and pros like past participants George Brett and Bert Campaneris (Kevin Costner not included). Most amateur players, including women, are baby-boomers who haven't played in a while, says Ken Nigro of Baseball Fantasy Camps Inc. Cost: $1,500 Call: 800-336-2267
For half the population, no sports fantasy would be complete without the prospect of facing off at the 50-yard line with the likes of Bruce Wilkerson of the Green Bay Packers. Huddle with the pros during a Club Med week of football clinics, demonstrations and a touch-football game -- all from April 12 to 19 in Guaymas, Mexico. Besides two football events a day, you can join the jocks in jogging, weight lifting and plain old partying around the compound. Cost: $700 Call: 800-258-2633
Willing to pan. a giant sum to live a gigantic fantas? Then plan on playing basketball with Magic Johnson in Maui, Hawaii, over the July 4 holiday. The clinic -- which Johnson runs along with former Los Angeles Lakers coach Jerry West -- includes coaching tips and scrimmages with Earvin himself Limited to 30 people age 30 or over, the camp is a yearly sellout despite its steep price. Cost: $6,100 Call: 310-785-0201
RUGGED INDIVIDUALIST
Major-league sports aren't the only ticket back to the world of damp towels and open showers; you can also relive your glory days during a week of tennis from April 5 to 12. The Club Med event, featuring Wimbledon champions Bjorn Borg and Virginia Wade, is served up on Paradise Island in the Bahamas ($1,020). For people really interested in cutthroat competition, Club Med offers a week of beach volleyball in September. The event will be held either in Cancun ($875) or Turkoise ($931). Call: 800-258-2633
To truly soak in a sport, try a Total Immersion swimming workshop sponsored by Terry Laughlin, a veteran coach who promises to teach a 'fishlike freestyle' that decreases drag and improves efficiency. Participants are of average, not Olympian, skill, says Laughlin. 'If you're a fabulous swimmer,' he says, 'you're not very likely to come.' The weekend workshops are offered several times a month throughout the country. Cost: $395; lodging not included Call: 800-609-7946
If you'd rather spend leisure time on top of the water than in it, lower yourself into a narrow boat for a week of sculling at the Graftsbury Outdoor Center, in Craftsbury Common, Vt. A training site for several Olympic teams, the center coaches experts and neophytes, individuals and teams. Cost: $655 to $725 for a week, $395 to $435 for a weekend Call: 800-729-7751 (Craftsbury also offers cross-country skiing, running and walking programs.)
Finally, for women who feet they have been excluded way too long from the pleasures of wading hip deep in cold water for hours at a time, there's Rainbow Adventures' women-only fly-fishing clinic, in Big Sky, Mont., August 30 to September 3. Besides casting and knot-tying sessions, the clinic offers expeditions to rivers renowned for their spectacular scenery as well as their trout. Cost: $1,395 Call: 800-804-8686
Whiten your teeth
with a home kit?
They seem like such a deal: over-the-counter teeth-bleaching kits that promise to polish up your smile for a fraction of what a dentist would charge. Instead of spending, say, $250 for several sessions in a dentist's chair, you simply bun. a $10 kit and let the bleach do its work while you watch TV or relax with a book.
Not so fast. Dr. Kenneth Burrell, senior director of the American Dental association's Council on Scientific Affairs, says OTC bleaching kits may indeed whiten your teeth. But they come with mouth guards, or trays, that can be clumsy and ill-fitting, potentially allowing the peroxide gel to leak and irritate your gums, he says. David Edell, president of CCA industries, which manufactures the Plus + White Kit, says that its foam trax. fits most mouths.
But bleaching may not help your teeth, anyway, because some dental stains don't respond to bleach. Burrell advises that you consult a dentist before attempting a bleaching procedure; then, if your situation warrants it, he or she can make a cust check the fit and monitor you throughout the treatment.
As for the undeniable argument that the dentist costs a whole lot more than the kit, Burrell says, 'You're not buying the gels from the dentist so much as you're buying the dentist's expertise and judgment, and the quality of what he or she is delivering.' In short, says Burrell, 'you get what you pay for.'
Of course, some dentists may have a vested interest in advising against home kits, say Mike Donio of the People's Medical Society a consumer-advocacy group in Allentown, Pa. If you're determined to in a kit, he say's, make sure you read the directions carefully and call the manufacturer you have any, questions.
Saving your spine
with a back belt
You're stacking cartons in the garage, hoisting boxes of files at work, maybe trying to move the piano just a tad to the left, when boiinng! Suddenly you're in pain and facing heavy spending on doctor bills, drugs or visits to the chropractor could you have saved yourself the pain and expense by spending a few bucks on a back belt?
Looks that way Although researchers have debated the merits of such decaces for several years, a new study from the UCLA, School of Public Health shows that flexible back belts reduced the number of injuries by about one-third for 36,000 employees of the Home Depot home improvement chain. The finding potentially spells relief not only for workers but also for employers: In recent years, back injuries have accounted for more than one-third of all worker's compensation claims, totaling $15 billion annually
The UCLA s published last winter in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, is the largest to measure the effects of back belts. Conducted over six years, it showed that men and women of all ages whose, jobs required lifting benefited from the supports. Those who profited the most were those whose jobs required the most intensed lifting
Dr. Jess Kraus, one of the study's authors, cautions that further research is necessary before findings can be generalized. Still, the study may encourage government researchers to take a new look at the devices. Dr. Lawrence Fine of the National institute for occupational Safety and Health, which has questioned their value, says the agency is reviewing the UCIA study.
As for the belts, which range in price from $13 to $100, they're available through doctors and chiropractors as well as at office-supply, hardware and home-center it -- Home Depot.
Cost checkup
Here's a conundrum: Although the prices of prescription drugs have continued to rise in recent years, your costs may actually have gone down, depending on the kind of prescriptions your doctor writes.
According to the 1996 CibaGeneva Pharmacy Benefit Report, the average price of a prescription went from $28.57 in 1994 to $30.19 in 1995, up about 5%, and the average co-payment for a 'formulary' drug-one on a list of preferred drugs selected by an HMO -- went from $6.67.to $7.16, up about 7%. Yet HMO members who bought generic versions of prescription drugs paid a bit less than they did the year before, from an average co-payment of $4.91 in 1994 per prescription to $4.79 in 1995.
Patients pay the most for nonformulary, brand-name drugs: Average co-payments for those drugs went up more than a dollar per prescription in 1995, from $6.75 to $7.77. ve higher cre
