Your health, our priority
Clear answers for everyday health
Written by health writers and kept up to date.
Type at least two characters to search.
Illustration
Pick a section, or search for a symptom, a medicine or a condition.
You receive your blood test results. Suddenly there are lots of medical terms. You have Hb, RBC, WBC, MCV and platelets. Along with some of these you will have H’s and L’s next to numbers which can cause you to worry. The complete blood count (CBC) is a routine blood test used to determine the levels of various blood cells in your body. This can give doctors information about anaemias, infections and bleeding disorders.
A nosebleed can occur at any time whilst at work, on the move or even when blowing your nose due to a cold. Many will automatically lean their head back or insert a piece of tissue into their nose. However, this may cause more problems. Most nose bleeds are caused by slight irritation and can be treated at home. Knowing what to do when you have a nosebleed and what not to do will help you stop the bleeding safely.
Most of us have taken paracetamol at some point, whether for a headache, fever or those annoying body aches that make even a normal day feel exhausting. It's a familiar medicine, often kept in the home and used without much thought. But even a common medicine needs a little care. Taking too much paracetamol or accidentally combining it with another medicine containing the same ingredient can cause serious liver damage.
Every article goes through the same careful steps before it reaches you.
Writers explain one topic at a time in plain words, with sources for what they say.
An article that contains a patient’s phone number, email address or ID number cannot be published.
If a problem is found, the article comes off the website at once and stays off until it is put right.
Each article shows when it was last updated.
