Health overweight due to virus infection?

Health: Obesity can be favored by a virus infection?

(20.09.2010) The relationships between malnutrition, low activity, genetic predisposition and obesity are well known and have been extensively studied in countless studies. What is new, however, is the result for the US researcher from the University of California at San Diego in the current online edition of the specialist magazine „Pediatrics“ come: the human adenovirus-36 (AD-36) makes infected people obese.

As part of the epidemiological study, the research team led by Jeffrey Schwimmer examined 124 children aged eight to 18 years. In particular, the relationship between adiposity and the virus AD-36 was of particular interest to the scientists. Thus, just under 80 percent of the clearly overweight children AD-36 could be detected. Thus, the results of older studies were confirmed, which have detected in about 30 percent of obese Americans antibodies to the virus - in lean people, however, only eleven percent. The AD-36 belongs to the family of adenoviruses and usually causes inflammation of the lungs or the eyes. However, in laboratory experiments, the viruses stimulated adult stem cells to turn into very large fat cells.

However, there are several criticisms of the results of the study, as of the 19 children infected with AD-36, 78% were overweight, but 67 adipose children took part in the test and by no means all had AD-36. That Obesity can also have a myriad of other causes, and it is also not clear whether AD-36 causes obesity or whether otherwise adipose people are more susceptible to infection with AD-36 and therefore more often have the virus. "It could be, for example, that obese people have a greater risk of becoming infected with AD-36," Julian Hamilton-Shield from the University of Bristol also commented „BBC“. It is clear that AD-36 is not the only factor influencing overweight and that, for example, wrong or overeating, physical inactivity or psychological stress can also lead to obesity.

Regardless of the causes „this amount of excess weight (...) is a cause for concern for all ages, but especially for a child, "warns study director Jeffrey Schwimmer, which suggests that obesity may be linked to many later problems, such as heart and liver disease or diabetes „Many people believe that obesity is the fault of the person or of their parents or family, "Schwimmer said, and the researchers are therefore also seeking to inform them, „The development of body weight is much more complicated than expected. "Schwimmer hopes that based on current research, some obese people, especially children, can be deprived of their psychological burden „it is time we said goodbye to blaming others“, explained the expert. „Instead (we should) increase our understanding, "Schwimmer demands and even if the current results have yet to be confirmed by further studies, the approach of overweight-triggering viruses in the future should by no means be ignored. (Fp)

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Picture credits: RainerSturm