Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[Michaelangelica]

Try Googling

"fat obesity virus cause"

and see what you get

 

Virus blamed for obesity epidemic

Virus blamed for obesity epidemic - Science - Specials - smh.com.au

By Deborah Smith Science Editor

March 18, 2006

 

 

AS MANY as one in five Australians may have contracted a virus linked to obesity. Blood tests on 2000 Australians, carried out in the US, showed about 20 per cent of them had been exposed to a virus called Ad-36, which some researchers say can cause weight gain.

 

The idea that fatness is catching is controversial. However, Richard Atkinson, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who did the testing, said a fat virus could help explain the worldwide epidemic of obesity.

 

"I believe obesity is a complex disease of many causes, one of which is viral infection," he said. How Ad-36 caused fatness was not known exactly, but it had been detected in fat cells in people and animals. In the laboratory it stimulates cells that are pre-fat cells to become fat cells.

[Queso]

so wait,

all those fat people

caught a virus???????

[GAHD]

Or even weirder: could fat have been introduced into the genome by such a disease?

[ughaibu]

Maybe fat people generate the virus. Parasitic wasps produce in their ovaries a virus to suppress the immune system of the host organsim. The angle of virus generation doesn't seem to get much attention.

[Jay-qu]

laziness and diet.. our society is making things to easy for people and our food is getting worse.

[W.Davidson]

Viruses are very often implicated in autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, but they're just one factor. Genetic predisposition is another factor. If the same applies here, then only a subset of those who catch this virus will become fat as a result. Enzymes and cell receptors are often the targets of the immune system when autoimmunity has been initiated.

[Zythryn]

From personal experience, I would agree that a combination of factors leads to obesity. If it were just laziness, I would be very fat. I am one of the laziest people I now and am not overweight.

 

The virus idea is very interesting, I look forward to seeing more information as more tests are done.

[ronthepon]

(according to currently accepted beliefs), the primary causes for the rise in fatness problems recently is the major change in our working style.

 

It includes machine takeover, laziness, junk food, and all that.

 

Further, it is fact that genes do cause fatness in some races, like us Indians. This is because in the recent times there have been devastating famines in India, leading to 'natural selection' of those individuals who could store food best.

Now that food is surplus, this food storage mechanism is killing us.

 

PS: The virus thing is an excellent for some obese, appearing as a excuse in gold armour. -->JOKE<--

[Mercedes Benzene]

Mhmmm. Nothing is to blame except ourselves. The increasing number of obese people is for the most part, due to modern lifestyles.

:D People just need to get off their asses and excersise!

[Jay-qu]

I here there are some medical conditions that make people more prone to become overweight - not overweight prone to it. These people just have to live with it, like people that have food allergies or diabeties

[Pyrotex]

I here there are some medical conditions that make people more prone to become overweight...

Sure. Some conditions are genetic, like the one that affects certain tribes of Hopi Indians out west. Some conditions are caused by defects in certain glands.

 

But... the biggest single cause of obesity is (IMHO) the fact that we (Americans, typically) have been brain washed, or have brain washed ourselves, into redefining what it means to "be hungry".

 

There are three stages of eating satisfaction: 1. you eat enough so that the initial feeling of "hunger" is gone. 2. you eat enough so that you achieve a feeling of "fullness". 3. you eat enough so that you physically cannot eat any more--you are "stuffed".

 

I keep my weight to 130 by saying "STOP!" to myself when I get to #1. On special occassions, I will go to #2.

 

What I observe around me is that most people now believe they are "still hungry" as long as they have not reached #3. They feel somehow obligated, obsessed, compelled, to eat until they are physically uncomfortable, or even in pain, before they will quit eating. And they brag about "being stuffed" as if this is an incredible accomplishment. Suggest to them that it would be better to stop eating somewhere between #1 and #2, and you get some pretty hostile reactions. You're tampering with their RIGHT, their OBLIGATION to eat as much as possible. In fact, unless they are physically "stuffed", they insist on telling themselves that they are "still hungry".

 

Before a meal, when they are "hungry", notice that many people now say they are "starving". This of course, totally validates over-eating. And we encourage each other to talk like this so that we all become each other's "enablers". End of sermon.

[ughaibu]

I've heard that each human has one of two types of brown fat, one type is associated with non-shivering thermogenesis, the other with obesity. At the moment I can only find mouse related links, the following seems to be suggesting that research on humans is still in the early stages: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Slyk5C51NVAJ:www.biomed.cas.cz/physiolres/pdf/2004/53_S199.pdf+%22mitochondrial+thermogenesis%22+obesity&hl=ja&gl=jp&ct=clnk&cd=5

[Racoon]

I've heard that each human has one of two types of brown fat, one type is associated with non-shivering thermogenesis, the other with obesity. ]

 

I have also heard, studied some, this Brown Fat.

Seems its like a "furnace", and will burn extra calories to create heat! :)

 

You aquire this type of Fat by working-out in cold weather! :cup:

probably another Evolutionary wonder...

Brown Fat will burn the extra calories you may ingest at a meal by turning it into heat...

 

Reasons Americans are Fat?:

 

Video Games. Potato Chips. Computers. Lazy attitude. Soda pop & fast food. TV

 

I am an Athletic Trainer...I see this **** all the time.

Obesity is good for business!

Bad for the Country! :)

[Queso]

the only reason I've gotten away from the cops I've had to run from

was because they were fatties. :cup:

[hallenrm]

Anybody, any information, are there any virus for the following malignant diseases,

 

Greed

Dishonesty

 

:cup:

[ronthepon]

Now these are some interesting looks at obesity.:cup:

 

People, seriously. Obesity is more of a bad thing than it is a good one.

[Michaelangelica]

Viruses are very often implicated in autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, but they're just one factor. Genetic predisposition is another factor. If the same applies here, then only a subset of those who catch this virus will become fat as a result. Enzymes and cell receptors are often the targets of the immune system when autoimmunity has been initiated.

Yes I would agree

Do you know more details about " Enzymes and cell receptors are often the targets of the immune system when autoimmunity has been initiated."

 

It will be interesting to see what happens with future research.

A virus could explain why there is such an epidemic.

 

Did you know that in Australia your chances of being MS reduces the closer you get, i.e., live, to Antartica? True

 

Today the news is that NSW State Govenment will ban soft drinks (translates -soda sweet ones eg lemonade Coke, Pepsi etc) in school Tuck Shops (translates- place at school where children buy food) next year..

I did see this happen in one school where most of the kids skipped brekfast and were "up the wall" by 10am. The schol instigated a" Healty Eating Campaign" in their Tuck Shop.

Parents then sent in 'permission slips' so the kids could walk down to maccas or local shops for a "decent" meal. The usual breakfast was a Mars Bar (maily sugar) and a Coke(mainly sugar).