Obesity causing Virus?

Posted by: Marisa Dowling

Not new, but definitely caught my eye.
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University of Wisconsin in Madison scientists found that mice and chickens infected with cold-symptom causing human adenovirus-36 were more obese than non-infected animals. And even more interestingly, adenovirus-36 is more common among overweight people (20-30% v 5%).

Through their experiments, the researchers found that infected animals weighed 7% more than non-infected animals, but their bodies had two times as much fat.

Considering that other viruses are known to cause chronic conditions, it may not be so far-fetched that a virus may play a partial/facilitative role in obesity.

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