Once authorities started adding the vitamin to milk, rickets, a previously common bone deformity, virtually disappeared.

FORBES: D Is for Debate

The procedure is usually only used in cases where there is no angular deformity or drifting of the big toe, doctors say.

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Thalidomide UK says that tests at a top London hospital have ruled out the possibility that the deformity was the result of some unrelated genetic disorder.

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The most frequent procedure to correct the angular deformity is an osteotomy, or a bone cut at either the front, middle or back portion of the first metatarsal bone.

WSJ: Young People Also Weigh Surgery to Relieve Ugly, Painful Bunions

Muralitharan was born with a permanently bent arm but it is a double-jointed wrist, perhaps combined with the deformity, which is primarily responsible for the amount of turn he is able to obtain on even the most batsman-friendly surfaces.

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Paleontological evidence shows that, compared with hunter-gatherers, early farmers had more anemia and vitamin deficiencies, died younger, had worse teeth, were more prone to spinal deformity, and caught more infectious diseases, as a result of living close to other humans and to livestock.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

Palacio's acclaimed story of a boy born with a facial deformity will compete in the 5-12-year-old category against Jim Smith for his novel Barry Loser: I Am Not A Loser, Helen Peters' The Secret Hen House Theatre, as well as Rodkey's tale about cut-throat pirates.

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