Any type of illness outside of diabetes or heart disease able to cause obesity in people used to be a laughable idea in the medical community. What’s more: heart disease and diabetes are actually two diseases caused by obesity (not in all cases, obviously), so the looping effect certainly doesn’t register on any victim chart.
Recently, however, scientists have learned that certain viruses may in fact cause obesity in people. By transforming other cells into fat cells, some viruses can potentially turn healthy people into overweight people, and this is found to be potentially true in children with something as seemingly minor as the common cold.
This is gigantic news around the medical industry. Of course, if you haven’t heard much about it in the mainstream, that’s because governments are still trying to sell the idea that an individual’s responsibility must give way for their control and that things like fast food and not paying their incredibly high mark-ups for organics are what’s keeping people unhealthy and obese.
However, this isn’t about conspiracy; this is about facts.
- Fact one: Government wants to regulate the food and healthcare industry.
- Fact two: Medical science has found that viruses can potentially cause obesity. Draw your own conclusions as to why this has been silent as opposed to, say, elections or earthquakes.
What does this mean for the future? That much is unclear. What is clear, though, is that this is a monumental breakthrough. A cause means a possible cure. In any situation, that should be huge news.
It started back in 2007, when scientists of the 234th meeting of the American Chemical Society announced the results of their study in which a virus was partly responsible for causing obesity in people. The hope: to find an antiviral to treat viral obesity.
Science had long discovered that over-eating, genetic predisposition, lack of exercise, and other markers were responsible for obesity. Viral agents never really made the radar, because scientists never realized that a stem cell could be so easily transformed into a fat cell.
The Adenovirus
That’s what the study showed the science world. Using lab experiments, the Adenovirus (Ad-36) was able to transform adult stem cells into fat cells. Adenovirus is contracted by many people around the globe, and it can cause eye and/or respiratory infections. Of course, now they know it can also cause obesity.
Doctors in California began studying the effects of Ad-36 and have recently found that, in children left undiagnosed with this virus, young people’s cells are also transforming into fat cells.
Out of hundreds of children in a study, kids exposed to the Adenovirus were an average of 35 pounds heavier than kids who were not exposed.
Like heart disease and diabetes, however, some scientists are skeptical of the results. They’re not entirely sure that Ad-36 is causing the obesity; they think it may be that already obese children have a higher probability of contracting the virus.
However, the results from the adult stem cells turned to fat cells are undisputable. It is clear in today’s world that a virus can cause obesity. And if one virus can do that, then it’s quite possible that many more can as well.