I wrote awhile ago about how researchers did a study showing that when it comes to obesity, birds of a feather tend to flock together. Those whose friends are overweight are at an increased likelihood for obesity.
Well apparently, at least in some cases, obesity is contagious–literally. Researchers at Louisiana State University have published yet another study that links a particular virus to obesity. In this study, the virus was shown to take adult stem cells and turn them into fat cells. While we can’t all blame our extra pounds on a virus, the possibility that some people who are obese have the virus shows promise in treating obesity.
The virus is a human adenovirus-36 (Ad-36), which is known to cause respiratory and eye infections. So far research has shown that this virus makes animals fat, and that 36% of people who are obese had this virus while only 11% of people who were not obese had the virus. This is the first study to show that the virus actually can convert stem cells into fat cells.
However, this is not the golden ticket to curing obesity. First of all, not everyone who is obese has the virus. It’s simply one link out of many contributing factors. Also, just because someone has the virus doesn’t mean that they will become obese. Behavior still has a significant impact on our weight.
But what doctors hope to do is isolate exactly how the virus works at transforming cells into fat cells and then find a means to treat the virus. Treating the virus won’t help a patient who is eating everything and anything fattening. But hopefully treating the obesity virus will help those patients who are in need of the extra boost.
The results were reported this week but doctors caution that we are a long way off to finding a way to treat the virus. We still need to eat healthy foods and get plenty of exercise as the main defense against obesity.
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