Doctor makes dubious discovery of obesity virus

Louisiana, Texas, January 27: Obesity is not merely a result of eating or metabolism disorder, it can be caused by an infectious virus, believe some doctors in the United States.

Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has been conducting various human and animal experiments for the past ten years to find the relation between obesity and viral infection.

The virus, Adenovirus-36, which infects the lungs and causes sniffles and sore throats, gradually spreads to the rest of the body and forces fat cells to multiply.

"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," Dhurandhar said.

On taking blood samples of people from an obesity clinic, scientists found 20 percent of them to be positive for antibodies to Adenovirus-36. These people were significantly heavier than those who tested negative for the antibody.

Dr. Dhurandhar and his team have now documented more than 1,000 patients whose obesity appears to be linked to infection with the virus.

It may sound bizarre since all of us weight-watchers know that somewhere we faulted; we gave in to the temptation of calorie-laden food and failed to work out enough and that is exactly when the bulges begin to show.

If the doctors’ claims were to be held true, should the slim people be shunning their fat friends in the fear of catching the infection? No, says Dr. Dhurandhar. The infection is believed to be encountered during early childhood and the person remains infective for two to three months.

"People could be fat for reasons other than viral infections, so it’s pointless for fat people to try to avoid infection," he added.

The study however, fails to explain why some people tend to gain weight faster than others. Also, it gives no clue on why the children of obese parents are more prone to be over-weight?

According to Dr. Louis Aronne, a New York obesity expert and researcher, the virus may be a small contributing factor and may actually make an impact by making it “easier to gain weight rather than to actually cause obesity.”