Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Viruses & Obesity

No one that I know disputes the role that diet and activity play in maintaining a healthy weight - if you consume more calories than you burn in daily activity, you gain weight. But does that fully explain the amazing prevalence of obesity in the United States today?

Please don't use any of the information in this post as an excuse to pig out, because it's still theory at this point.

Richard Atkinson, MD, suggests there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that viruses may play a role in causing obesity in humans.

Dr Atkinson is the director of Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, VA. One of his recent articles, published in the October 2007 Mayo Clinic Proceedings, discusses five animal viruses and three human viruses than have been shown to cause obesity in laboratory studies.

According to Dr. Atkinson, several studies offer ample evidence that animals infected with certain human viruses experience excess weight gain and fat storage.

When researchers infected animal subjects with a human virus known as Human Ad-36, they reported measurable increases in the infected animals' body fat and the visceral fat that surrounds the organs deep within the belly. In addition, studies also demonstrated that infection with Ad-36 and the resulting weight gain could be transmitted from infected animals to uninfected animals.

Information on virus-induced obesity in human subjects is much more limited. Citing his own study conducted in 2005, Dr. Atkinson also showed a connection between obesity and exposure to the Ad-36 virus in humans.

Dr. Atkinson's study screened for antibodies to Ad-36 (a sign of exposure to this virus) in 502 people of varying body weights, both obese and non-obese, from three cities in the United States. Ad-36 antibodies were found in 30 percent of obese individuals and 11 percent of lean individuals. Study results also showed highly significant differences in body mass index (BMI) between antibody-positive and antibody-negative individuals.

Dr. Atkinson also highlighted a study that looked at 89 sets of American adult twins and screened them for Ad-36. Because twins tend to be similar in many characteristics, including body weight, the researchers looked at twin pairs where one twin tested positively for Ad-36 and the other did not.

"Antibody-positive twins were slightly, but significantly, heavier and fatter than their antibody negative co-twins," says Dr. Atkinson. "The infected twins had a higher BMI and a greater percent of body fat than the uninfected co-twins."

Dr. Atkinson's article also explores what current research has to say about the possible mechanisms underlying virus-induced obesity. Some research suggests that viral infections have a direct effect on adipocytes, cells that manufacture and store fat, turning on the enzymes of fat accumulation and recruitment of new adipocytes.

What's the next step for this research? According to Dr. Atkinson, "the body of evidence linking adenoviruses to obesity in humans is now sufficient to think about the next step. Ideally, we could prevent infection and virus-induced obesity with a vaccine for the obesity viruses."

Should this be true, development of a human vaccine of this sort would take several years, so it's way too early to give up watching your diet and getting plenty of exercise.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This science is worth watching, but I agree, we must be careful not to use it as an excuse to overeat.

Anonymous said...

This is really good information to know but I do agree as well this should finding should make any of us eat more and exercise less, even though that would be a great excuse!

Anonymous said...

A virus?! This is shocking! Too bad its not a bacteria...with the way we use antibiotics, it would be gone in a flash!

Anonymous said...

I don't think they should proceed with this study. People are going to get the vaccine and become unhealthly. Its just going to make people lazier. For instance when some women get pregnant they think they can eat what they want but it makes them and their baby more unhealthy.

Anonymous said...

Ben, What are you thinking????

We are all at increased risk of death from bacterial asault because antibiotics have been innapropriately prescribed. They should be saved for life threatening illness, not used for weight control -

Ellen Troyer, MT MA said...

Karen,

Obesity is life threatening!

However, I agree with you about the reckless way antibiotics have been prescribed.

And before we get too far off track, to my knowledge there are no published studies suggesting obesity could be associated with a bacterial infection. But, if any of you know of such studies please let us know.

Jeffrey Anshel, OD said...

Karen,

While I can't speak for Ben, I took his comment as sarcasm, not a suggestion.