The truth about obesity

At first, I can’t believe what I’ve read about obesity. Yes, we can catch obesity just like cold. That’s why whenever I see a family of obese people nowadays, I had other thing in mind not the usual ‘genetic’ preference. It is because obesity is contagious.

Adenovirus-36

Two years ago, a group of researchers conducted a series of tests to thin animals. When adenovirus-36 were injected to thin animals, most get fat without eating more.

Dr. Richard Atkinson, director of the Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, Virginia, in the US said that “the virus has the same effect in people.”

He collected blood samples/ from 502 people and found that about 30 per cent of the obese people had antibodies to Ad-36, meaning they’d been exposed to the virus at some point. They weighed on average 22 kg more than those who hadn’t been infected. Just 11 per cent of thin people had antibodies.

Even Dr. Atkinson is not convinced about the theory that people exposed to it will have same effects on Ad-36. While conducting the tests, 15 per cent of the researchers have been infected by the virus. When Ad-36 enters fat cells, it stimulates fat production and instructs cells to store fat . Ad-36 can cause conjunctivitis, diarrhea and stuffy nose. With these effects, a person who catches the ‘obesity’ virus can easily gain weight.

Dr. Atkinson hopes to find an antiviral drug to fight its effects.

Human adenovirus 36 (HAdV 36) is one of the 52 types that is known to be linked in people's obesity. It was separated from the feces of a girl in 1978, who suffered from diabetes and enteritis . AD-36 is also is also known to cause respiratory and eye infections on humans. This virus is also associated with obesity among chickens by Dr.Nikhil Dhurandhar.

As the recent studies show, it is the only type to infect human beings, present in 30% obese humans and 11% non-obese humans. Study cases among 30% obese individuals had shown that only 5% have antibodies against AD-36. Aside from chickens, animals like mice, rats, and monkeys can also be obese through Ad-36.

On January 26, 2009, Dr. Dhurandhar, who is based at Pennington Biomedical Research Centre, Louisiana, implicated AD-36 as the potential cause of Britain's adult obesity.