Science Blog

Science news straight from the source

Navigation

  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Animals
    • Anthro and Archaeology
    • Bio and Medicine
    • Brain and Behavior
    • Business and Economy
    • Computers and Electronics
    • Education and Outreach
    • Energy and Environment
    • Geoscience
    • Internet and Communication
    • Media and Entertainment
    • Nanotech, Chem and Materials
    • Physics and Numbers
    • Security and Defense
    • Software
    • Space
    • Transportation
  • Reader Blogs
  • Commerce
  • Register/Login
  • RSS
Home Contagious obesity? Identifying the human adenoviruses that may make us fat
  • Contact
  • Home
Google

Recent Comments

  • Maybe this will help
  • Typically one-sided sexist pseudoscience
  • rehbilitation technique
  • Inherently Flawed Theory
  • Your post is quite devoided too.
more

Reader Blogs

  • Spine-Relaxing Chairs Invented
  • City Council To Recognize Physics Students For Solving Stephen Hawking Mistake
  • Cystic Fibrosis – Axentis Pharma Initiates Clinical Trial for Lung Infections
  • Mysterious Disc Found
more

I just watched a documentary

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2007-04-30 17:44.

I just watched a documentary on Ad-36, which doesn't make me an expert, but presumably I now know more than many of the previous people who've commented here:

They checked a pair of twins who had very different body weights (which is said to be unusual, since identical twins tend to maintain nearly identical weights). The fatter twin tested positive for antibodies for the adenovirus; the skinny (normal) twin tested negative, meaning she had not been exposed. That seems like a pretty positive confirmation.

The documentary suggested that fat people are not contagious... the virus comes along, modifies a bunch of "pre-fat" cells turning them into regular fat cells, and doesn't stick around. The damage is done, and probably cannot be reversed.

They tested a bunch of people in the UK; a substantial portion of the obese people did test positive for exposure to the adenovirus. The lean people that were tested as a control sample were all negative.

The virus can't be blamed for all the overweight people, but even if it's only 1/4, that's a heck of a lot of unwanted jiggling cellulite, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, humiliation and frustration that could be easily preventable if there were a vaccine against these adenoviruses.

Reply

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <blockquote>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Copyright, Science Blog.
Think. It's not illegal yet. Read our Privacy Policy.
RoopleTheme