Posted on 01/30/2006 6:17:15 PM PST by blam
Obesity 'can be caught like a cold'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 31/01/2006)
Evidence that obesity could be contagious was published yesterday by American researchers - and washing your hands could be an elementary step to avoiding the virus and becoming overweight.
A team led by Dr Leah Whigham, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found that the human adenovirus Ad-37 causes obesity in chickens, marking the third virus to be linked to being overweight: two related viruses, Ad-36 and Ad-5, also cause obesity in animals.
Moreover, Ad-36 has been associated with human obesity, leading researchers to suspect that Ad-37 also may be implicated.
"We know Ad-36, and now Ad-37, cause obesity in animals," said Dr Whigham, whose findings are reported in the American Journal of Physiology.
"But we do not have cause-and-effect data in humans - you cannot ethically do the experiments for that kind of data: infect humans and see if they get fat."
The notion that viruses can cause obesity has been a contentious one among scientists, she admitted. And yet, there is evidence that factors other than poor diet or lack of exercise may be at work.
"With the exception of infectious diseases, no other chronic disease in history has spread so rapidly," Dr Whigham said.
"The nearly simultaneous increase in obesity in most countries is difficult to explain by changes in food intake and exercise alone, and suggest that adenoviruses could have contributed."
I just got over a cold two years ago and I'm still 10 pounds under weight for a 56 year old man. No matter what I do, I can't gain weight. Always been that way since a child.
Eat less food.
I've never understood fat people. They eat 200 pounds of food a day and drink diet Coke.
I have someone like you in my family.
I hate both of you.
LOL
"I was riding the bus next to this fat guy who was coughing and the next thing you know, I came down with being fat.
If this isn't a joke it's pure unadulterated BS.
*cough*(bu!!$hit)*cough*
That's it... I'm going on a ham sammich diet.
Second-hand OBESITY! BWwwWhHHhhaAAAA!!!! Drear God, I love it!!
LOL, My kind of diet.
Thanks for the ping!
Yeah, me too. But I finally joined a gym and am workin out in addition to long hilly walks every morning. Doin a whole new kind of puffin and feelin stupid for havin replaced one deadly friend with another!!!
Hysterical !
I have been blessed with genes that allow me to eat anything I please and not gain weight and I always feel bad for folks that are not as lucky.
That said,I doubt very much that the increase in obesity today is anything more than poor eating habits and minimal exercise. Where was this adenovirus 50 years ago?
I'm thankful not to worry about weight either.
Well, way back when, there was no Play Stations and computers. People and kids got out more. Everyone sits on their butts too much now.
this weren't a problem when we had bennies in the world
and fat girls had diet doctors...
every respectable truck driver had strategicly placed fat girlfriends around the country...
To some it is an heir-borne illness.
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