More on America's Obesity Problem

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Odie,

Are you saying you don't believe excessive body weight is a significant contributing factor in Heart disease, diabeties, stroke, and gout, to name a few diseases?

[Odie]

Odie,

Are you saying you don't believe excessive body weight is a significant contributing factor in Heart disease, diabeties, stroke, and gout, to name a few diseases?

For Type 2 diabetes, yes, because it's a factor in insulin resistance. But the others? So long as you are active in some way, even if the weight doesn't come off, no, I don't believe they are factors.

ETA: A vaccine would only prevent the virus from being contracted. It would NOT prevent diabetes, not in and of itself. Thinner people become diabetic as well, it's not an iron-clad "You're fat, therefore you're diabetic" correlation.

[Vethnar]

By the way, did nobody click on the link of the year-old McDonald's burger in the OP? And if you did, how can you not remark on identical it looks to any burger they're dishing out right now? Not to mention the fries.

I'm not sure whether it has been pointed out elsewhere in the thread (I don't have time to read all of it right now), but at least one other experiment has given a rather different result.

[Guest Raidne]

I'm sorry, did we just establish that there is some evidence showing that being fat is contagious?

[Odie]

I'm sorry, did we just establish that there is some evidence showing that being fat is contagious?

If it's can be caused by a virus, how do viruses survive? By taking over hosts and then finding new ones. Not a huge leap of logic there.

[TheLoneliestMonk]

Studies had already found a correlation between being overweight and hanging around overweight people. This is just the first thing that came up in a quick google search.

In the past when I saw articles like that, I figured it was because friends often eat together and probably have similar activity levels. It'd be a trip if it turned out it was actually a virus.

[DrownedCrow]

I'm sorry, did we just establish that there is some evidence showing that being fat is contagious?

Surprisingly, there are actually a decent number of papers out there linking Adenovirus 36 to obesity. There's even a molecular mechanism. Of course, most of these papers are from a single lab (at the prestigious Louisiana State University no less) and they still have a hell of a long way to go before proving this hypothesis. Still, I guess it's not impossible.

[BigFatCoward]

Surprisingly, there are actually a decent number of papers out there linking Adenovirus 36 to obesity. There's even a molecular mechanism. Of course, most of these papers are from a single lab (at the prestigious Louisiana State University no less) and they still have a hell of a long way to go before proving this hypothesis. Still, I guess it's not impossible.

isn't it amazing that no marathon runners or triathletes or tour de france cyclist have caught this disease.

get to fuck, a fat virus! is there any chance of people taking a bit of personal responsibility here?

[Odie]

Studies had already found a correlation between being overweight and hanging around overweight people. This is just the first thing that came up in a quick google search.

In the past when I saw articles like that, I figured it was because friends often eat together and probably have similar activity levels. It'd be a trip if it turned out it was actually a virus.

"This is an amazing finding," said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the comprehensive weight control program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.

But he immediately saw cause for concern.

"There's a danger that people will be biased against the overweight even more than in the past," Aronne said. "Is a mother going to say, 'I'm not going to let my kid play with an overweight kid because it's going to make my kid overweight'?"

Hence why there needs to be treatments found to help those already infected, if the virus studies turn out to have validity. Otherwise, fat people will become the lepers of the 21st century.

[Odie]

isn't it amazing that no marathon runners or triathletes or tour de france cyclist have caught this disease.

get to fuck, a fat virus! is there any chance of people taking a bit of personal responsibility here?

From what little reading I've done on the subject, it's not a matter of whether or not you're exposed, but whether or not your body fights it off. If you're genetically predisposed to resist the virus, you do and you do not see the effects. If you're not, you become obese.

Which would explain marathon runners quite handily. If/when they were exposed to the virus, their bodies were resistant to it. A group made up of marathon runners would naturally lend itself to be made up of such genetically resistant people.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

To bfc:

Actually, most of the stats indicate that yes, thin people do also carry this disease. Well, some of them do, just as some obese people do not show the virus or its antibodies.

Like pretty much everything else discussed, it's (probably) a factor, not ~the cause~. (Also, like many other viruses, different people have different reactions to being infected.)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17908526 : Ad-36 causes obesity in chickens, mice, rats, and monkeys and was present in 30% of obese humans and 11% of nonobese humans. In twins discordant for infection with Ad-36, the infected twins were heavier and fatter than their cotwins.

For the results of inoculation (not in humans): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10951537 : Animals inoculated with Ad-36 developed a syndrome of increased adipose tissue and paradoxically low levels of serum cholesterol and triglycerides. This syndrome was not seen in chickens inoculated with CELO virus. Sections of the brain and hypothalamus of Ad-36 inoculated animals did not show any overt histopathological changes. Ad-36 DNA could be detected in adipose tissue, but not skeletal muscles of randomly selected animals for as long as 16 weeks after Ad-36 inoculation.

I don't think most people are saying that this virus, if it really does cause obesity in humans too, means that carriers are necessarily forced to be obese for the rest of their lives. It shows that this is an additional obstacle that could help explain why some people are fatter than others when both are following the same nutritional / exercise plans. (It does also mean that oh shit, obesity's not all personal choice, though that's still a huge factor, and it's not necessarily reflective of laziness or a lack of commitment/moral fortitude.)

[Guest Raidne]

Ack! Well when you consider hormonally-based birth control, partially hydrogenated everything, high frustose everything else, and a sedentary job, who the hell needs additional factors working against them?

Seriously, this everything-is-a-virus thing is getting depressing. First chronic fatigue syndrome and now this?

[DrownedCrow]

isn't it amazing that no marathon runners or triathletes or tour de france cyclist have caught this disease.

get to fuck, a fat virus! is there any chance of people taking a bit of personal responsibility here?

Whatever do you mean? I have always taken personal responsibility for my excellent physical condition. In fact, I'll do it again on record: I am lean yet muscular, with the optimal level of body fat because of my superior moral character which is more than a match for any adipogenic virus out there.

[TerraPrime]

my superior moral character which is more than a match for any adipogenic virus out there.

I think Pasteur just sort of turned in his grave. :lol:

[fitheach]

An obesity virus? Really? Then why does it seem only the U.S. has this spreading so rampantly, yet the rest of the world (for the most part) is virus free? I mean, Im sure these americans with the "fat virus" travel to other countries. Why aren't they spreading this to the French, Italians, or more importanly to countries where people have viral outbreaks regularly (from lack of hygene) like China or Africa?

Sorry, Im not buying the "science" behind this virus. Reminds me of the connection between Autism and vaccines...

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Is the rest of the world virus free, or just untested? Maybe there's a regional/genetic component to how individuals are affected by the virus. See also above about the virus being known to cause, but not guaranteeing, obesity.

[DrownedCrow]

I think Pasteur just sort of turned in his grave.

I'm sure he'll forgive me. I really had to go all out to counter BFC's scientific arguments.

Sorry, Im not buying the "science" behind this virus.

Something tells me you didn't read the "science" behind this at all.

[Odie]

An obesity virus? Really? Then why does it seem only the U.S. has this spreading so rampantly, yet the rest of the world (for the most part) is virus free? I mean, Im sure these americans with the "fat virus" travel to other countries. Why aren't they spreading this to the French, Italians, or more importanly to countries where people have viral outbreaks regularly (from lack of hygene) like China or Africa?

Sorry, Im not buying the "science" behind this virus. Reminds me of the connection between Autism and vaccines...

To be certain, if it's true it's one piece of the puzzle. Factors unique to America could then potentially make the problem worse here (food subsidies, chemicals disguised as "food", working conditions, basically the things discussed in the previous thread) which is why this is such a difficult problem to solve.

[fitheach]

I did read the science... Who's backing this study? Is there money to be made selling a vaccine to fat Americans?

Viruses spread. Period. The mystery of why we are fatter than the rest of the world is not really a mystery, and its not a virus. Why did I connect this to the science behind autism/vaccines? Because people want an outside reason for why something happens, whether its autism (most likely genetic) or obesity (genetic and eating shit). They want to blame something that can be fixed (or sued). The science behind the autism\vaccine connection has pretty much been debunked- this will probably be too.

Sorry if anyone is personally getting offended by my scepitcism (cant spell), its not personal.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

I did read the science... Who's backing this study? Is there money to be made selling a vaccine to fat Americans?

Viruses spread. Period. The mystery of why we are fatter than the rest of the world is not really a mystery, and its not a virus. Why did I connect this to the science behind autism/vaccines? Because people want an outside reason for why something happens, whether its autism (most likely genetic) or obesity (genetic and eating shit). They want to blame something that can be fixed (or sued). The science behind the autism\vaccine connection has pretty much been debunked- this will probably be too.

Sorry if anyone is personally getting offended by my scepitcism (cant spell), its not personal.

Your comments, not just this one, may not be personal, but they can be a bit offensive.

There are more reasons than just over eating and not exercising for people being over weight. Are these part of the factors: yes. But part, not the 100% always answer.

You read the study, but it said that only 30% of obese poeple had the virus, so obviously, they were not saying it is the single cause of the problem in the US, but a part of the problem. No one said that, but your response was just short of violent. I don't get it.