discovery health

Apr. 18--Aetna will start selling health plans to younger AARP members, and UnitedHealth Group will expand its offerings to Medicare-age members of the organization under new seven-year contracts announced Tuesday. Hartford-based Aetna, which currently sells no health insurance through AARP, will offer comprehensive individual plans by Jan. 1 to AARP members who are age 50 to 64. Aetna will begin the sales in 24 states and expand that over time, company spokeswoman Cynthia Michener said. AARP has about 18 million members who are younger than 65. The insurance will be co-branded with AARP, and the benefits will meet AARP''s needs for product design, Michener said. Rates are still being developed. It was not known Tuesday whether the Aetna-AARP policies will be cheaper than the individual plans that Aetna already offers on its own in some states, including Connecticut.

Don’t Drink Your Calories!

It may well be that soda pop is mankinds worst ever discovery. If you drink soda pop, especially the caffeinated kind, it could kill you, as shown recently when a mans death seems to have been associated with his overconsumption of diet soda. But most especially, it can go right after your kids health. Pop gives the average teenager approximately 12.5 teaspoons of refined sugar a day. It works out to that much more than what our US government has determined people need in unrefined sugar per day. Also, your kid and you are using soda pop, in all probability, as a food. In 1977-78, teenagers drank twice as much milk as soft drinks, but by 1994-96, it had turned around; they were drinking twice as much soda as they were drinking milk. And such consumption is linked with lower intake of nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Despite lack of health clubs, rural residents stay in shape

Fitness clubs are often few and far between in northcentral Montana's rural communities. But that doesn't stop the residents of these tiny towns from staying in shape.

Whether walking with friends or working out in the high-school gymnasium, rural residents are getting active.

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On the level: Plastic piping the way to go

Q: Our new house is framed, and we just noticed that our builder is using plastic instead of copper piping for the plumbing throughout our new house. This surprised me - I hadn't seen this before. What do the pros think of plastic plumbing pipes? Is it as good or better than copper? .