A Virus Causes Obesity?

September 14th, 2009

Hi, Everyone –

According to researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, there is actually a virus that causes obesity. The virus, dubbed AD-36, can apparently be passed as simply as the common cold and also causes cold-like symptoms. Here is how it works: the virus apparently replicates itself in fat tissue, thus creating more fat cells, expanding fat and leading to obesity. In one test conducted, nearly one-third of obese people had this virus, as compared to only 11 percent of their healthy-weight counterparts.

I’m interested to hear some thoughts on this so-called “obesity virus.” While it does sound like it has some scientific validity, do you think it will just be used as another excuse?

Dr. Snyder

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