Finally – the answer to the obesity epidemic.
It’s a virus!
New evidence indicates that children who are exposed to a virus called adenovirus-36 are more likely to be obese than those who are not exposed to it, and to be heavier than other obese kids who were not exposed to it, researchers said this week. The virus… is one of 10 bacteria and viruses that have been associated with a propensity for putting on plural poundage.
Maybe this explains why I and 2 of my sisters all became fat in the same year.
Well, that, combined with the fact that we had just moved to a new neighborhood where there were no kids we knew to play outside with, and we started taking a bus to school instead of walking, and Dark Shadows had just started, leading us to spend every afternoon after school in front of the TV snacking.
But I like to think it was a virus.
It’s always the virus. :0
Always….. 🙂
Dammit! Did you three give me that virus? 😉
Here I thought it was just bad genes (I SO would have preferred super model genes! The ones from Germany or Brazil would have worked nicely. No such luck apparently.)
Thanks for the excuse I’ve been looking for when the gym and healthy eating fail me.
Virus blaming here I come!
Cheers,
Beth (cousin of Peggy and user of excuses)
Beth –
I think it is our genes AND the virus. With two strikes against us Polaneczky’s, how could we NOT be fat????
Not that you’re fat….You have the Aunt Rosy thin gene to compensate you lucky thing.
I knew it! Damn viruses are going to take over the earth. I got SERIOUSLY exposed to that virus though…has nothing to do with my sedentary lifestyle, love of carbs and evening snacking!
Do you think that we can name the viral exposure, call it a Syndrome, and then officially blame all problems related to fatness on the syndrome? Then we can be officially victims!
It’s totally a syndrome and we are totally victims.
Speaking of which, have we finalized the pastistio throwdown date with John? My virus is craving Greek lasagna, and it gets real mean when it’s hungry….
I am suffering from “I travel Too Much Syndrome” which has me delayed. We are into November.
Assuming that this true for an instant, how does a virus make you fat? Would it mess with your pituitary gland? I’m just curious. If you’re going to put that theory out there, I’d like to see the cause and effect behind it. Now, if I get sick during the winter, which I do a lot, I tend to lay around to get better which then takes me out of my exercise routine, and I have a hard time getting back into it until the weather turns nice again. However, that’s just a lot of events that stack up and then I get lazy. Not really the fault of the virus. Would you find a virus? Probably, but I would say it’s innocent.
From the LAtimes article –
“Researchers are not yet sure how the virus can make people fat. But in a study three years ago, researchers from Louisiana State University found that infecting human fat extracted during liposuction with the virus caused stem cells in the fat to become fat cells, which then grew and accumulated and stored fat. After fat cells are formed in the body, they never go away. They may shrink during dieting, but always remain there ready to begin storing fat again if the person consumes too many calories.”
I like it!
This makes sense in a way. It would explain the way that people used to store fat in the winter when they were hunters and gatherers. Also, if you think about it, getting sick then would mean dying if you didn’t have some sort of reserve for your body to live off of. So I could see producing fat cells as a survival mechanism or a defense mechanism against colds. Problem is, we don’t need that mechanism anymore.
So, my problem is that I caught Obesity?
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“But in a study three years ago, researchers from Louisiana State University found that infecting human fat extracted during liposuction with the virus caused stem cells in the fat to become fat cells, which then grew and accumulated and stored fat. After fat cells are formed in the body, they never go away. They may shrink during dieting, but always remain there ready to begin storing fat again if the person consumes too many calories.”
I thought all fat cells are like that–fill up & shrink, fill up & shrink, but never go away. When you get really fat, you grow more fat cells, and that just exacerbates the whole cycle.
Question is, is this virus exclusively found in the US (and Italy)? Because we are still relatively more overweight compared many other countries out there, making me think the main problem is still our poor eating/exercise habits…