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Once thought to have neurofibromatosis, Joseph Merrick (also known as "the elephant man") is now, in retrospect, thought by clinical experts to have had Proteus syndrome. This endocrine disease causes continued and abnormal growth of the bones, muscles, skin, and so on and can become completely debilitating with severe deformities occurring anywhere on the body.
The shortest mature adult human of whom there is independent evidence was Gul Mohammed in India. In 1990, he was measured in New Delhi and stood 22.5 inches tall.
Medication errors are three times higher among children and infants than with adults.
The human body produces and destroys 15 million blood cells every second.
Cancer has been around as long as humankind, but only in the second half of the twentieth century did the number of cancer cases explode.