I'm not overweight because of my diet...

[Groundhog]

... I just have adenovirus.

You can catch obesity like a cold, scientists say | The Daily Telegraph

You can catch obesity like a cold, scientists say


By Fiona MacRae
January 27, 2009 06:30am

OBESITY can be "caught" from another individual in the same way as a cold with the virus spread by dirty hands, scientists suggest.
The condition has been linked to a highly-infectious virus that causes sniffles and sore throats.

The adenovirus apparently attacks tissue and causes fat cells to multiply - leading to massive weight gain, The Courier-Mail reports.

Previous studies have shown that chickens and mice infected with the bug put on weight more quickly than uninfected animals - even when they do not eat more.

Now human studies show that almost a third of obese adults carry the virus compared with 11 per cent of lean men and women.

Professor Nikhil Dhurandhar, who led the research, said the bug continued to add weight gain long after those infected recovered from their cough or cold.

"This virus goes to the lungs and spreads through the body," he said.

"It goes to various organs and tissues such as the liver, kidney, brain and fat tissue. When this virus goes to fat tissue it replicates, making more copies of itself and in the process increases the number of new fat cells, which may explain why the fat tissue expands and why people get fat when they are infected with this virus."

The professor, from Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Louisiana, said victims could remain infectious for up to three months.

"But people could be fat for reasons other than viral infections, so it's really pointless to try to avoid fat people to avoid infection," he said.

Learning more about adenovirus's role in weight gain could speed the development of an antiobesity vaccine, or drugs to tackle the condition.

Obesity experts, however, dismissed evidence of a link with adenovirus as "sparse". Tam Fry, of the Child Growth Foundation, said: "You are much more likely to pick up the flu than obesity.

"In general, obesity is down to eating more than you need and not exercising as much as you should."

Dr Ian Campbell, a GP and medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said: "A virus will never be the reason for why we have an obesity epidemic.

"There are far too many other factors, starting with our calorie intake exceeding our expenditure, and that's because we live such sedentary lives.

"Our dietary habits have changed beyond belief and I don't believe that's the effect of a viral infection. It is the fault of the commercial expansion of companies making unhealthy foods."

[Lathum]

"But people could be fat for reasons other than viral infections, so it's really pointless to try to avoid fat people to avoid infection," he said.

my favorite line ( insert fat girl joke here)

[Groundhog]

"Sorry baby, I'd love to take you home, but I don't want to catch the fat disease. No, seriously, I'm not being cruel."

[dubb93]

Will this lead to a ban of fat people from public places now that they pose a threat to the general public?

[sterlingice]

Really? " Now human studies show that almost a third of obese adults carry the virus compared with 11 per cent of lean men and women."

That's not a great correlation. It really just sounds like obese people have more compromised immune systems so they are more likely to have issues with the virus. I would like to see the virus causing major fat replication in action.

SI

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

That's not a great correlation. It really just sounds like obese people have more compromised immune systems so they are more likely to have issues with the virus. I would like to see the virus causing major fat replication in action.

SI

winner.


If you eat a diet of Twinkies and hot dogs ( yes I know not all obese people do this, I was just illustrating the main reason for obesity is a poor diet), then you won't fight infection as well.

I would be more curious to see the same 33% of people switch to a diet with more fruits, veggies, and even just water instead of soda and see if the "virus" went away.


Of course, they could just scoss breed them with the immortal jellyfish, that may solve the problem.