Immune System

Area residents who are recently separated or divorced are being sought to take part in a 12-week study, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, on the effects of depression and stress on physical health. "This is a breakthrough study," said Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at Penn. He is the area director of the study, which is also being conducted in Pittsburgh. "When people undergo marital difficulties, they often become physically ill," Seligman said.

Notre Dame? Who cares? Cover our teams The Inquirer's Sports' "Season of Change" series (April 10-16) is a real disappointment. Why is so much space being devoted to the football teams of South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana? Wouldn't the people of this area be much more interested in the schools where we send our kids, and pay for with our tickets, tuition and taxes? I know that Notre Dame is a hallowed subject at The Inquirer, even though most columnists usually end up at the end of the season asking the question, why?

How do you know if you're stressed out? Mother Nature has many ways of handing us a hint. There is no one-symptom-fits-all. Here are symptoms of stress, but they could indicate other ailments too: Tense muscles Headaches Sleeplessness Grinding your teeth Stomach aches Diarrhea Skin blemishes Eating excessively or losing your appetite "The important thing to know is that stress is...

Q: In 1987, I was diagnosed with IgG immune deficiency. Everyone who hears about this assumes it is in the same ballpark as AIDS. Can you help by educating me and the public about this and other immune deficiencies unrelated to AIDS? A: There are many types of immune deficiency. AIDS, the most serious, is also the most publicized. However, many chronic diseases, particularly those affecting the immune system (such as lupus and diabetes) are associated with minor immune deficiencies.

An existing drug dramatically reduced the most serious complications of bone marrow transplants, University of Pennsylvania researchers are reporting Thursday. The finding could someday point the way toward an entirely new method of preventing the body from "rejecting" transplanted organs of all kinds in the future, experts said. The work demonstrates a possible new approach to transplants of donated bone marrow, said Joseph Antin, a professor of medicine at Harvard, who was not involved with the study.

VANILLA ICE (real name Robert Van Winkle, and how great is that?) was out on his own recognizance early yesterday afternoon after spending the night in jail for allegedly shoving his wife. The one-hit wonder ("Ice Ice Baby") was arrested Thursday night at his home in Wellington, Fla., by police who responded to a domestic-dispute call. According to an arrest report, Laura Van Winkle told a sheriff deputy at the scene that her husband had only pushed her, although she had told a dispatcher she'd been "struck" and "kicked.

MY JAN. 11 column, "Touched by an Angel," chronicled my recent stay at Lankenau Hospital and extolled the diagnostic brilliance of Dr. Judy Robinson, my personal physician. My cardiac condition came as a shock, yet it should have been a very preventable malady, caused mostly by my foolish belief in my invincibility. Like most men, I've long suffered hardheadedness. Getting regular medical overhauls, outside of those badge-of-honor injuries from sports, seems, well, unmanly. Despite all the focus on men's health in the slick monthlies like Esquire, Men's Health, GQ and Men's Vogue, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer take many of us to early graves.

Tennessee Tech basketball coach Mike Sutton was still in critical condition yesterday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where he is being treated for a rare illness that attacks the immune system. Sutton, 49, fell ill while attending a tournament for potential NBA players in Portsmouth, Va., earlier this month and was admitted to a Virginia hospital. He was transferred to Nashville last Friday, and doctors are treating him for Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disease that attacks the immune system and causes paralysis.

A medical setback will delay the return of Police Chief Richard H. Moore Jr. to full-time duty until September. Moore, 46, is recovering in his Washington Township home after undergoing a heart transplant at Temple University Hospital in April. Last week, he said he had to postpone his scheduled August return after his body showed signs of rejecting his new heart in May. In addition, he said, he had a bout with pneumonia. "I'm just giving the body a little more time to heal, and then it's time to dive into the fire," Moore said.

Two months ago, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia made international headlines for using an experimental gene therapy to save the life of a Pennsylvania girl who was dying of leukemia. On Wednesday, the hospital made international headlines - and was denounced on Facebook as "cruel" "heartless," "greedy monsters" and worse - for appearing to tack on hundreds of thousands of dollars to the original price of treating a Croatian child, Nora Situm, 5, with the same breakthrough therapy.