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More than nineteen million Americans carry the factor V gene that causes blood clots, pulmonary embolism, and heart disease.
It is believed that the Incas used anesthesia. Evidence supports the theory that shamans chewed cocoa leaves and drilled holes into the heads of patients (letting evil spirits escape), spitting into the wounds they made. The mixture of cocaine, saliva, and resin numbed the site enough to allow hours of drilling.
Cyanide works by making the human body unable to use oxygen.
Eating food that has been cooked with poppy seeds may cause you to fail a drug screening test, because the seeds contain enough opiate alkaloids to register as a positive.
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.