Check With Your Eye Doctor Annually

Just because you have 20/20 vision doesn't mean you should skip a visit to the eye doctor.  Make sure to check in with your optometrist once a year.

If you've had corrective eye surgery, you're at a higher risk for retinal detachment. Once your eyes are fixed, getting an eye exam is probably no longer at the top of your priority list. But the chances of you getting retinal detachment increases after surgery, and you want to get a diagnosis as early as possible to save your vision. You also have a much higher risk for developing myopia (nearsightedness) earlier than people without any eye issues.

Some eye conditions are irreversible if caught too late. "A lot of eye conditions can be treated, but if you wait too long it's much more difficult to reverse the damage,” explains Weinstein. Since there are no symptoms in the early stages, glaucoma is especially hard to catch. However, if you have your eye pressure checked once a year, you can detect it early, before it leads to serious side effects such as blindness. Cataracts is another eye disease that can be detected early during exams. "An annual eye exam is really important for someone who cares about their health — both the visual part and the medical part,” says Weinstein.

Why You Shouldn't Drink Warm Bottled Water

You may want to think twice before taking a sip from that plastic water bottle that's been sitting in your hot car. According to new research, really high temperatures can increase the amount of dangerous chemicals released from the bottle's plastic into the water.

In the study, scientists from the University of Florida and Nanjing University in China investigated the effects of storing 16 brands of bottled water (all sold in China) at three temperatures: 39 degrees F, 77 degrees F, and 158 degrees F. And they checked the levels of two substances — antimony (a trace heavy metal) and bisphenol A (BPA) — in the water.

After a four-week period, they found that the higher the temperature and the longer sitting time, there were higher levels of antimony and BPA detectable in the water. They also determined that only one brand actually met the Environmental Protection Agency's legal limit of .0006 milligrams of BPA per liter of drinking water.

Higher levels of BPA and antinomy can cause a host of problems for your health. For example, BPA is a chemical that mimics estrogen in the body, therefore blocking the natural production, distribution, and function of natural hormones. And antinomy has been found to play a role in the development of lung, heart, and gastrointestinal diseases.

So should you worry? "If you drink [a hot bottle of water] once in a while, I don’t think that’s a concern. One is no problem. Even a few is no problem. It’s cumulative," study author Lena Ma told Yahoo Health. "I don’t want to mislead people, saying bottled water is not safe. Bottled water is fine. You can drink it — just don’t leave it in a hot temperature for a long time. I think that’s the important message."

Ways You Might Be Sleeping Wrong

1. You only use your pillows for your head. If you sleep on your back, wedge one under your knees to take pressure off your lower back. Or if you sleep on your side, wedge a pillow underneath your top armpit to support your arm and one between your legs to keep your spine aligned:

2. You sleep on your stomach. Sleeping facedown can cause some obvious issues — like not being able to breathe, for example. Because you need to turn your head to one side to get air in and out, you inherently twist your spine. Over time, this can cause neck and back pain (not to mention issues falling and staying asleep), says Ilene Rosen, M.D., an associate professor of clinical medicine for the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and member of the board of directors for the AASM. To straighten your spine, bend the elbow and knee on the side you typically turn your head toward, and wedge a pillow underneath that armpit and hip. If you tend to kick the pillows and wake up flat on your stomach, tape a tennis ball to the front of your pajama shirt to teach your sleeping self not to roll. And if you really can't sleep in a modified position? Wedge a thin pillow under your abdomen to take pressure off your back.

3. You don't have a bedtime. When you crash hard at 9 p.m. on Monday night and stay up all night Tuesday to binge-watch your Netflix queue, your body won't know when to shut down on Wednesday night. A consistent sleep schedule helps your body know when it's time to fall asleep and wake up, Leve says.

4. You sleep in on weekends. Think you can run on no sleep all week and catch up Saturday morning? Leve says it doesn't work like that. Recent research suggests skimping on sleep can actually lead to permanent brain damage that can compromise your alertness and brain power — and binge-sleeping can't mend that.

Ways To Burn 100 Calories

Pop gum in your mouth

Even if you've told your kids to stop chomping on their gum, you'd be smart to keep chewing the stuff. Besides freshening breath, and sending a signal to yourself that you're finished eating, gum-chewing has a 150-pound woman blowing off 11 calories every 12 minutes.

Fix up your car

You could pay for a pricey mechanic, or you could take 30 minutes to open up your hood, and see for yourself why your sedan is making that weird chugging noise. A 150-pound woman who gets down and dirty for half an hour burns 102 calories, and saves a pretty penny.

Take a pre-breakfast walk

Once you rise, shine, and chug your morning coffee, head out for a walk around the neighborhood. "You're going to boost your metabolism, and start burning calories left over from the day before," says Bob Harper, author of Jumpstart to Skinny. A 20-minute, moderately paced walk can easily torch 100 calories.

Hit the billiards

You could see another movie on date night, but why not try something a little more active? Head to your local bar and challenge your husband to a game of pool. A 150-pound woman will shoot off 99 calories in 35 minutes — enough to earn you another drink.

HIV Prevention In The Works

It's not unusual for sexually active women to worry about pregnancy and STIs. But, while there's a bevy of options available for women to prevent pregnancy (oral contraceptives, IUD's, and NuvaRing, to name a few), STIs can get a tad more complicated. Recent scientific developments, though, may put the power completely in a woman's hands (no more finicky condom problems).

Bioengineers at the University of Washington are developing another option, the nitty gritty details of which are published in a new study in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. This new alternative comes in the form of a tampon—sort of. Rather, it's a tampon-like device that contains maraviroc, a drug that helps treat HIV, but also may be able to prevent the infection from developing in the first place. Essentially, you insert the device, it turns into a gel, and during intercourse it spreads, preventing a potential HIV infection. To do this, the bioengineers combined maraviroc with silky fibers which dissolve when they are touched by moisture.

Cameron Ball, doctoral student at the University of Washington and lead author of the paper on the topic, says that they were looking for an easy way for women to protect themselves at a moment's notice. "We want something that dissolves quickly so that people can say, 'Hey, I wasn't planning on it, but I'm going to have sex in five minutes so I need to use this product, and I want it to be completely dissolved before that,'" Ball told The Huffington Post.

HIV isn't the only thing researchers are looking to prevent using the fibers—others could include herpes prevention or contraceptives. But don't get too excited about this revolutionary technology—development is still in very early stages, meaning that if all goes well, we won't be able to see the product on shelves for another 10+ years due to the necessary approvals, clinical trials, and research. An improvement well worth waiting for.