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Medicine Facts

What Is a Bruise?

A bruise is a deposit of blood under the skin. It flows from tiny capillaries that break when you bump your shin on the furniture or take the batter's pop fly in the eye. The injury starts out looking ... Continue reading

Smallpox, Chickenpox . . . Monkeypox?

This past summer a few people in the midwest came down with monkeypox, a viral disease related to smallpox but less infectious and a lot less deadly to humans. Oddly they all seem to have caught the ... Continue reading

Your Friend, the Fat Cell

A healthy, adult human body contains about 35 billion fat cells. Each contains about 0.5 micrograms of fat. Stored fat is essential to good health. Fat is the body's principal energy reserve. It is ... Continue reading

Mature fat cells filled with fat.

The Placebo Effect

To test new drugs, researchers usually divide their subjects into two groups. One group receives the experimental drug. The other receives a placebo or 'sugar pill' that should have no effect on the ... Continue reading

Which of these pills is the real thing?