Could Weight Gain Be Caused by a Virus?

The general population of America assumes that obesity is caused by eating too much and exercising too little. We assume that if any obese person wanted to change enough, then they could But new studies have uncovered a possible cold-like virus, called adenovirus-36, that causes weight and fat gain in animals and is also present in some overweight humans.

When scientists injected mice and chickens with adenovirus-36, after several months they had gained only 7 percent more body weight, but had almost doubled their body fat percentage – even though they ate the same amount. Researchers suggest that this is caused by a decrease in metabolism, which then causes the fat cells to grow, even without eating extra calories.

About 20 to 30 percent of overweight Americans carry this virus, as opposed to only 5 percent of the normal-weight population. In the future, there may be screening for this virus, although it would only act as a way to motivate people to be more serious about their health. Unfortunately, there is no known antidote at this time.

Although many of us like to point the finger at the overweight, the truth is that you can never be sure. People infected with this virus wouldn’t have to overeat to put on large amounts of fat in a short period of time. Hopefully, science will come up with some way to combat this, so every person’s weight can be managed with diet and exercise Until then, don’t judge – remember that everyone has a different body and a different way of holding onto fat.