Obesity Virus
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New scientific research has suggested an “obesity virus”, which can be transmitted from person to person, could be acting as a trigger for weight gain. Labeled the adenovirus, the highly infectious disease makes fat cells multiply rapidly, and can cause sore throats and colds. Tests revealed that animals infected with the virus stacked on weight compared to those that were not given the disease – both test subjects were given the same amount of food. When the research was applied to humans, it was shown that nearly a third of obese men and women have the virus, compared to only 11 percent of healthy adults. The study, which was conducted by Professor Nikhil Drurandhar, from the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Louisiana, showed that fat cells continued to multiply even after the cold-based symptoms had disappeared. "This virus goes to the lungs and spreads through the body," he told News Limited.
• "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." • But while the virus could be transmitted, Drurandhar said there was no need to avoid obese people in fear of catching the disease. • "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. • Other obesity experts however, like Tam Fry of the Child Growth Foundation, suggested that the recent findings were “sparse”. • “You are much more likely to pick up the flu than obesity.” She said. "In general, obesity is down to eating more than you need and not exercising as much as you should."