Posted on 08/20/2007 1:44:54 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A common virus caused human adult stem cells to turn into fat cells and could explain why some people become obese, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The research builds on prior studies of adenovirus-36 -- a common cause of respiratory and eye infections -- and it may lead to an obesity vaccine, they said.
"We're not talking about preventing all types of obesity, but if it is caused by this virus in humans, we want a vaccine to prevent this," said Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University System.
The virus adenovirus-36 or Ad-36, caused animals to pack on the pounds in lab experiments. "These animals accumulated a lot of fat," Dhurandhar said in a telephone interview.
Dhurandhar also has shown that obese people were three times more likely to have been infected with Ad-36 than thin people in a large study of humans.
Now, researchers in Dhurandhar's lab have shown that exposure to the virus caused adult human stem cells to turn into fat-storing cells.
Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, who led the study, obtained adult stem cells from fat tissue of people who had undergone liposuction. Stem cells are a type of master cell that exist in an immature form and give rise to more specialized cells.
Half of the stem cells were exposed to the virus Ad-36. After a week, most of the infected stem cells developed into fat cells, while the uninfected cells were unchanged.
Pasarica presented her findings at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
"The virus appears to change their commitment to a fat storing cell," Dhurandhar said, adding that Ad-36 is just one of 10 pathogens linked to obesity and that more may be out there.
He acknowledged that some people might find it hard to believe that a virus could be responsible for obesity.
"Certainly overeating has something to do with gaining weight. No doubt about that. But that is not the whole truth," Dhurandhar said. "There are multiple causes of obesity. They range from simple overeating to genes to metabolism and perhaps viruses and infections."
Long term, he said he hoped to develop a vaccine and perhaps treatments for the virus. But first, he and colleagues need to better understand the role of Ad-36 in human obesity, he said.
Globally, around 400 million people are obese, including 20 million children under age 5, according to the World Health Organization.
I’d say that whoever is eating only that is not eating enough.
I’m far from “naturally” thin.
Salad greens, 6 oz of skinless, grilled chicken, and balsamic vinegar is a decent meal. Add fruits and veggies in between for snacks, a healthy breakfast and another meal of protein, fiber, certain carbs, etc. and it’s a good daily meal plan.
Since you're starting a list...
My mother's parents were both obese, albeit mostly in their later years (post 50 or 60, I think). My grandfather was almost perfectly round when he died (natural causes) at the ripe ol' age of 94. My grandmother didn't get quite that big. She died (cancer) a little earlier, around the age of 90 or so. My mother, not coincidentally, is getting somewhat portly (to be kind) in her late 60's. She's a long way from dead, so far as I can tell. I have a step-mother in Florida that's always been larger than life. She's in her 70's now and in real danger of kicking the bucket. She drags an oxygen bottle wherever she goes. I suspect that has more to do with her past smoking habit than anything else (but I'm guessing). My dad is also overweight by more than a few pounds. No doubt this is a factor in his high blood pressure which, in turn, was likely a primary factor in the stroke he had a few weeks ago. He's in his mid 60's. If he behaves himself, he might make it to his 70's.
Make of it what you will.
I don't believe that you have to eat to lose.
Feel free to ignore the research. Your belief is founded on your level of knowledge. I'm simply reflecting the results from MDs and PhDs in nutrition and human physiology. Read some of Schwarzbein's books or Barry Sears. You'll get a better grasp of the mechanics of metabolic physiology.
It’s not high carb, it’s just not low. It’s moderate.
I agree with what you said though. If someone finds something that works for them, that’s great.
I never want to do what you did - no dairy, meat or eggs. I just cut WAY, WAY back and don’t do red meat. Eventually, I’ll add that back, but I’ve gotta lower my cholesterol a little bit first.
I actually have done quite a bit of study on this, and “no,” I wouldn’t think they “just got there.”
There will always be exceptions to general rules, but basically, intake vs. output - simple math.
You find a totally obese person who claims they eat nothing and then put them in a room and literally let them eat only enough to maintain good nutrition and see what happens. You must think they’ll not lose weight. What a joke.
Thanks for helping to make the point. It’s ironic that my Mom passed away of cancer at the age of 57, and was very skinny even before her illness.
Excuse me, but someone on here has to live in reality. A lot of the posts on here seem to imply that a person taking in less calories than they burn will NOT lose weight. That’s false. I used an extreme, but I think some of you might be feeling a little defensive or convicted about your weight.
After I made my previous post, I thought about it and I have someone in my own family that would be on the list, now that I think about it. My mother-in-law, who is now very tiny, was pretty heavy her entire life. I wouldn’t call her obese but she was pretty close - she’s 84 now and has pretty terrible dementia. She is also the closest thing to a saint on earth I’ve ever met.
I do believe that a person’s attitude and gratitude can go a long way towards longevity and she was the happiest, most optimistic person I’ve ever met.
I will grant you that many factors go into long life, but let’s face it, we have some control over our fate and being heavy is normally not a route to longevity.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
OK, I see your point. Thank you.
“Sooner or later when you go back to eating normally (like with bread), you gain weight. Most times, more than what you took off. How long can one eat only 1000 calories? It has to be forever.”
It’s a copout to say that one doesn’t have the time to walk 40 minutes per day. That is all one has to do. Just walk on the sidewalk; you’re already paying for it. Just walk.
Then, you can do just about anything you want. The 40 minutes of walking every day will resolve all the other issues. You’ll lose the excess weight slowly, gradually, but it will decrease and all your vital signs will improve.
Or, you can make excuses, like I just don’t have time. I’m too busy. I’m too fat.
“my girlfriend consumes 1000 calories a day and does 30 minutes of cardio on a elliptical and she has been at it for 4 months and hasn’t lost more than 5 lbs. she has hyper or hypo thyroid issues? I swear she drinks water by the gallon and eats like a bird, does weights and cardio and can’t loose hardly any weight at all. I think she weights about 150 and is 5 feet tall. It is sad to see her work so hard and deprive herself of so much for such dismal results. Is there nothing they can do for a bad thyroid....the meds don’t seem to help at all although she says if she stops taking them she gains weight...the math just doesn’t add up!”
I’ll bet she’s hiding the Twinkies and the Ho-ho’s in one of her cabinets. Take a look. Pizza boxes in the trash can?
“And thanks for seeing the wonderful woman your girlfriend is, rather than just a fat person.”
But she’s got a great personality!
“Some of it is genetic.”
Say, I think I saw you in a ballet production. You were the one wearing a two-two-two-two-two, right?
Tell her to go to www.stopthethyroidmadness.com and read the stuff there. You’d be surprised what you will find. I did. Ordered the tests for myself and hubby but haven’t gotten results back yet.
I’ll bet she is a great lady! Say “hi” from me! She’s lucky to have you.
Sometimes it is. Common Sense is not so very different from "Conventional Wisdom". (It's different, but not completely.)
This researcher used the classical scientific method. She made observations, developed a hypothesis, (a theory if you will) and then made predictions as to the outcome of those experiments.
The problem with "Personal observations" is that they are necessarily limited to everyday situations, and observable factors. Try coming up with Special Relativity using "common sense based on personal experience and observation".
How do you explain her results if the virus was not causing the increase in fat cells under very controlled conditions, were overeating was not a factor, and the baboons were what they were, from a "moving less" standpoint, before and after the infection?
Maybe the virus stimulates the fat cells to grow or for more of them to develop, which they do by starving the other cells and also sending out "I'm hungry", signals, as do those other cells. Don't know just how that works but it stands to reason that fat cells must have some method of signaling that they are "empty".
Now some folks may be able to resist their bodies physical call to eat, and some may not, assuming food is available of course, which it always is in the here and now, but wasn't always in the past.
Being fat makes exercise of all sorts much more difficult. That leads to "The Metabolic Syndrome", wherein the fatter you get, the fatter you get, until you can hardly "move less" or "eat more" (some people can of course, and they become the candidates for the "Worlds Fattest..whatever).
It's also possible that the virus doesn't have that effect in all people, or that in most it's only temporary, but for some it's longer lasting. It would be interesting to know if *all* the exposed baboons gained weight and kept it on, or they just did so "on average".
I'm just theorizing of course, but the "theory" at least fits the observed data, but needs both expanding and of course testing.
Couldn't the virus be inducing an abnormality? There's more to metabolism than the thyroid you know.
So was my wife's grandmother, well into her eithies. She did get a little thinner after she got senile (probably mini strokes , my Father in law had those too, but was always thin like his father, of course at the end he was skeletal) My grandmother wasn't thin, well my paternal one was but she died in her 50s from cancer, but she died in her late 60s, from cancer. Needless to say, I get the old bowel inspected pretty frequently. (Dad had colon cancer too, but they caught it soon enough and he lived for about 15 years after that)
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