This must truly be the foretelling of the end times.
Here is the day that the overweight can be discriminated against as if they were infectious, and the overweight can blame their size on a virus they caught by not washing their hands enough.
If this is true, I don’t think the researchers should tell people.
[from the Daily Express in the UK]
Researchers believe that an airborne “adenovirus” germ could be causing the fat plague that is blighting Britain and other countries.
As many as one in three obese people may have become overweight after falling victim to the highly infectious cold-like virus, known as AD-36.
Many experts already believe that genes can make some people more susceptible to weight gain and now it seems that infections could also hold the key.
Can you imagine the implications of this? Given the fact that the obese are now the majority in the US, if this is proven to be true, I can’t even predict the social impact this would have.
If this virus really is contagious, and causes some people to become fatter, can you imagine the amount of intolerance and discrimination that would occur? I wasn’t around when black people had to use separate facilities, and weren’t allowed to associate with whites, so it’s a little hard for me to imagine two thirds of the population being at odds with the other third, as would be the case if people were actually scared of catching a virus that can cause fat cells to multiply.
As Doug at Healthhabits said on the topic, these findings could just be drug researchers searching for a problem that can be fixed with their “cure”. Yup, and they can sell it to us at $6 a pill that is required to be taken daily by both the “infected” and those hoping not to catch “fat-cancer”.
...feeding the virus
But who knows. Maybe this virus will explain all of those “anomalies”, or people that claim they eat well and exercise yet can’t lose weight (even though countless people that say that DO manage to lose weight and become healthier when their habits are put under real scrutiny by a trainer or a nutritionist).
This was interesting:
Now studies on humans show that 33 per cent of obese adults had contracted AD-36 at some point in their lives, compared with only 11 per cent of lean men and women.
Researchers have noted that they don’t know why some people (and animals) that contract the virus do not gain weight, and some do. This fact reveals that the findings could be more of a correlation than previously thought.
Perhaps exercising and healthy eating keep the virus at bay. After all, doesn’t being healthy usually mean you have a stronger immune system?
A good point here:
Dr Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: “We must acknowledge it is a contribution to the research but it doesn’t alter the management of obesity.”
If this thing is real, is the new answer for obesity to simply avoid infection, and wait for the vaccine? Of course not. Nowhere in this study does it say that having the virus means that it makes it impossible for one to lose weight if they so choose. All it says is that animals given the virus gained more weight than those that weren’t, and 33% of overweight humans have contracted the virus in their lifetime, while 11% of normal weight people have contracted it.
My thoughts? If this virus can make people fat, I doubt there is much we can do about it. In other words, it doesn’t sound much different than the common cold. It’s out there, and we can’t avoid it. There’s no reason to go around wearing sars masks, though. The best we can do is just try and be the healthiest we can be. It’s doubful that one would be anymore likely to gain weight than they were already. I surely do not think it means that anyone should be treated like lepers.
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More info from the article:
[The virus] is known to cause coughs, sore throats, diarrhoea and conjunctivitis but has now also been found to make fat cells multiply, leading to weight gain.
In other news… A treatment has already been developed for the virus! Although there are side effects: They include coughs, sore throats, diarrhea, conjunctivitis, and weight gain. Weird…
Bloggy,
Did you read any of the F.A. responses to this study?
There were some great ones:
From the post:
COMMENTS:
Thanks for the link BTW
I did read that post DR.
I wouldn’t have known where to start, so I just didn’t mention it. I didn’t read any of the comments yet though. They’re always a good time.
I love how whenever they talk about something controversial, they pretty much avoid the topic altogether, and instead of discussing it seriously they just focus on tearing apart the author of the article cited, or the pictures used on the website with the article. They also quote things completely out of context to try and discredit them for some purpose.
Hi Bloggy!
Any interest in plotting the return of MFS? I’m Starting a little MFS refugee forum. Stop by, weigh in. Thanks. Keep up the good work.
??? What happened to “My Fat Spouse”? I didn’t know.
It’s gone! Something about the account being suspended showed up for a while and now not even that!
I think the FA abducted Chris.
But if this were true wouldn’t it provide a reason to shun fat people? That is definitely not something the fat acceptance movement would find desirable. So a mixed bag, it isn’t their fault BUT now folks have an incentive to ostracize the obese.
John
I’m sorry it wasn’t more clear, but that was kinda my main point. If this virus business is as real and prevalent as they claim, I really don’t think they should tell people because of the social implications.
Because I think avoiding people that might have this virus is pointless, I think it would be better if nobody knew about it because they would use that information to magnify their prejudices and discrimination as they think it would be justified.
Ya Know, we been up and running, banging away on myfatspouse.org for almost a year now and we still haven’t heard from Chris. I’m still wondering what happened to that dude.