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More than nineteen million Americans carry the factor V gene that causes blood clots, pulmonary embolism, and heart disease.
As the western states of America were settled, pioneers often had to drink rancid water from ponds and other sources. This often resulted in chronic diarrhea, causing many cases of dehydration and death that could have been avoided if clean water had been available.
In ancient Rome, many of the richer people in the population had lead-induced gout. The reason for this is unclear. Lead poisoning has also been linked to madness.
The calories found in one piece of cherry cheesecake could light a 60-watt light bulb for 1.5 hours.
The Babylonians wrote numbers in a system that used 60 as the base value rather than the number 10. They did not have a symbol for "zero."