Inflammation

This is perhaps the biggest reason these Phillies might not be flukes: When they need a well-pitched game, there's a fine chance they will get one. Last night, the Phils were coming off an ugly loss on Tuesday and anticipating a three-game weekend series in Atlanta, which can leave any team badly chopped. So Tommy Greene, despite a late-inning salvo of line drives, threw nine strong innings, limiting the Pittsburgh Pirates to five hits and a single run in a 4-1, rain-delayed Phillies' victory.

It was 8 a.m., and 86-year-old Allan Ford had delayed his breakfast to help researchers at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania figure out whether a hormone called ghrelin can combat frailty - a combination of muscle loss and fatigue - in the elderly by making them eat more. Clinical trials have been something of an avocation for Ford, a former marketing and advertising man from Wynnewood, since the mid 1990s. With no chronic illnesses, he was always in the healthy control groups.

One of the hot trends in cancer medicine is using tiny particles to deliver drugs directly to a tumor, rather than bombarding the whole body with chemotherapy. But the immune system treats these nanoparticles as foreign invaders, so it tries to clear them before they can do their job. The solution, says a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers, is to make the foreign particles seem like natives. The group reported Thursday it had done just that in lab mice, attaching customized protein fragments to the particles that tricked the animals' immune-system "border guards" into relaxing their vigilance.

The Phillies have survived the losses of several key players and enjoyed what to this point has been a surprisingly successful season. Now comes the biggest challenge of all. One month to the day after starting for the National League in the All-Star Game, Curt Schilling was placed on the disabled list last night with inflammation in his right shoulder. The 32-year-old righthander, who has been plagued by this problem for more than a month, will return to Philadelphia today for concentrated therapy.

Johnson & Johnson said yesterday that it would acquire 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Yardley, in a cash deal valued at $88 million. The pharmaceutical and health-care products giant will pay $5.74 for each 3-Dimensional share, which closed at $5.64 yesterday on the Nasdaq stock market. The announcement sent the small company's shares soaring $2.61, or 86.1 percent, at yesterday's close. 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals has drugs in early-stage research for treating cardiovascular disorders, oncology and inflammation.

The Eagles casually announced yesterday that Corey Simon's trip to the foot doctor in Maryland on Monday revealed that the starting defensive tackle has plantar fasciitis and that he will not play in tomorrow's exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. An ominous development for a team already decimated by injuries? Not according to Mark Myerson, the foot specialist who treated Simon. "His foot was very inflamed," Myerson said last night by cell phone. "He'll be back in training next week.

Question: What causes my urine to have a lot of foam? Is it serious? Answer: Have you ever had lemon meringue pie? Those tall peaks of frothy white that make up meringue are made from two simple ingredients: sugar and egg whites. When whipped, egg whites will at first foam, and then stiffen into white peaks with continued beating. That's a result of the unique properties of the albumin protein of egg whites. It's normal to have a trace of protein in standing urine, which foams like meringue as the urine mixes with the water in the toilet.

His coffee consumption level hasn't changed. Nor has his sleep schedule. But Michael McTigue feels a lot more energetic at work these days, perhaps because he stands most of the time. Sitting at a traditional office desk, "I ended up exhausted at the end of the day," said McTigue, director of digital media for pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. "There was nothing stimulating me. " About a year ago, Glaxo set up a pilot program in which employees could work at adjustable-height desks, among a slew of other workplace design changes in preparation for the company's move from its Center City offices to the Navy Yard on Monday.

Question: I recently heard about a study that says antihistamines like Zyrtec and Benadryl can cause weight gain. I have allergies all year long and wonder if the 15 pounds I've gained over the last year may be due to that. What do you think? Answer: For years, there have been reported associations between antihistamine use and the incidence of obesity. Most recently, an observational study published in the August 2010 issue of the journal Obesity found that of the roughly 900 folks studied, those taking antihistamines were more likely to be overweight or obese than those not taking antihistamines.

Philadelphia ranks fifth from the bottom of the more than 200 most populous counties nationwide on a key measure of infant mortality, the organization Save the Children is reporting Tuesday, another reminder of the overriding importance of poverty and race. Some other parts of the region don't fare well either. Camden County was No. 20 and Delaware County No. 22 in the analysis of infant deaths in the first 24 hours of life for 2007 through 2009. Among states, Delaware comes in fourth and Pennsylvania sixth (counting the District of Columbia as No. 1)