Adenovirus

As part of my ongoing effort to make sure that I never run out of blogging material, I subscribe to a number of quack e-mail newsletters. In fact, sometimes I think I've probably overdone it. Every day, I get several notices and pleas from various wretched hives of scum and quackery, such as NaturalNews.com, Mercola.com, and various antivaccine websites. I think of it as my way of keeping my finger on the pulse of the antiscience and pseudoscience wing of medicine, but I must admit that I don't really read them all, but they do allow me to know what the quacks are selling and what new…
Revenge of teh Chubby Virus! I know you all have seen the headlines. Again.More evidence links a virus to obesity, this time in childrenâ Study: Children Exposed to Adenovirus-36 Likely to Get Obeseâ Virus Is Linked To Obesity Can a Cold Lead to Childhood Obesity? Adenovirus 36 and Obesity in Children and Adolescents Adenoviruses are ubiquitous. Weve all been infected with lots of them (gets to be a problem when making gene therapy vectors). The older you are, the more likely you have been exposed to the different kinds of adenovirus, to the point where if you are an adult reading this,…
You all might remember this story from a few years ago: Contagious Obesity? Identifying The Human Adenoviruses That May Make Us Fat This is one of the papers that article was based on: Human adenovirus-36 is associated with increased body weight and paradoxical reduction of serum lipids Long story short, an adenovirus (virus Ive written about previously) was associated with obesity. That is, people with high BMIs were more likely to have antibodies to Adenovirus-36 than people with normal BMIs, 30%:11%. Since 2005/2006, scientists have tried to flush out the how/whys behind Ad36-->Obesity…