Washington: Just add a handful of almonds: a University of Florida study suggests that improving one’s diet can be as simple as that.

Minneapolis: Antibiotics may be linked to a serious disruption in brain function, called delirium, and other brain problems, more than previously thought, according to a “Views and Reviews” article published in the recent online issue of Neurology, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Sacramento: Adding to the already length list of reasons not to smoke, researchers have connected smoking to worsening degenerative disc disease in the cervical spine, according to research presented this week at the Association of Academic Physiatrists Annual Meeting in Sacramento, Calif.

Birmingham: Engaging in the practice of anal intercourse may increase risks for bowel problems, including fecal incontinence and bowel leakage, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Medicine study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Washington: People who feel older than their peers are more likely to be hospitalized as they age, regardless of their actual age or other demographic factors, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Washington: For several years, Leon Bellan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University, has been tinkering with cotton candy machines, getting them to spin out networks of tiny threads comparable in size, density and complexity to the patterns formed by capillaries – the tiny, thin-walled vessels that deliver oxygen and nutrients to cells and carry away waste. His goal has been to make fiber networks that can be used as templates to produce the capillary systems required to create full-scale artificial organs.