Again, Scientists are losing the forest for the trees:
"It makes people feel more comfortable to think that obesity stems from lack of control," Whigham said. "It's a big mental leap to think you can catch obesity." However, other diseases once thought to be the product of environmental factors are now known to stem from infectious agents. For example, ulcers were once thought to be the result of stress, but researchers eventually implicated bacteria, H. pylori, as a cause.
"The nearly simultaneous increase in the prevalence of obesity in most countries of the world is difficult to explain by changes in food intake and exercise alone, and suggest that adenoviruses could have contributed," the study said. "The role of adenoviruses in the worldwide epidemic of obesity is a critical question that demands additional research."
Ulcers are too caused by stress. When we are stressed, our stomachs become alkaline allowing bugs including viri and bacterii to grow. While H. pylori, a bacteria, is associated with ulcers, the reason why the bacteria grows isn't considered. The bacterial infection may be the effect not the cause.
This doesn't mean, however, that just because my immune system is ineffective and results in a virus and/or bacterial infection, I would skip a magic pill that would get rid of the weight--'cuz I just might.
I find it interesting how most of the comments I have read about the possibility of a virus causing a certain percentage of people to become obese have caused some indignity about letting those fat people off the hook.
ReplyDeleteI dated a guy (for a very short time) who insisted that Aids was God's punishment. I took the idea to work and we spent the day musing over what "wrongs" might cause colds, flus, cancers...
Maybe not all fat people eat fast food, are couch potatoes, never exercise.
One of the skinniest people I know eats 4 times what my husband and I eat per day. He eats lots of junk food and rarely exercises. Another skinny soul I know lives on choclate and pastries, and thinks the reason people get fat is because they have the wrong "attitude". I would love to discover what that attitude is. Any body know???