Is it possible to catch obesity like you’d catch a cold, the flu, or pink eye? Yes, say researchers who believe obesity is due, in part, to a viral infection.

Adenovirus Ad36 — one in a family of about 50 viruses that cause colds, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal problems, and eye inflammations — could be the culprit in some cases of obesity in humans and other animals. In fact, it’s been linked to a 50 to 100 percent gain in body fat in some animals. And 30 percent of public screened for the virus in one study had the antibodies, compared to 10 percent of citizens of a healthy weight range.

“We can’t say that the virus caused obesity in all those citizens,” says researcher Richard Atkinson, emeritus professor of medicine and nutrition at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It’s still speculation, some say a gross speculation.” Still, Ad36 research has led Atkinson to create an obesity research center in Richmond, Virginia where society can

pay for tests to determine whether it’s food or viral exposure responsible for their additional pounds.

There are too many restrictions on checking right now for Atkinson and fellow scientists to produce any convincing human conclusions. But they are pretty convinced by their study on mice and monkeys. What they’ve learned so far: Animals inoculated with the virus gain weight even when their food intake remains the same. And Ad36 is transmissible from animal to animal.

Original post by Jacki Donaldson

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