Can a virus make you fat?

January 26, 5:00 PMWeight Loss ExaminerGail Gedan Spencer

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Gezundheit?

The adenovirus, the same virus that can give you the common cold, may be responsible for obesity in some people, says a Louisiana biomedical research center.

This discovery is not new -- Dr. Nikhil Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar reported this in a 2007 study done at Louisiana State University. But this time around BBC2 plans to air a TV special on the finding, Why Are Thin People Not Fat? BBC News reports:

For the past 10 years, Dhurandhar has been carrying out animal and human studies on the virus, Adenovirus-36.

He believes it could be one of the mechanisms causing some people to put on weight more quickly.

His team at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center have now documented more than 1,000 patients whose obesity appears to be linked to infection with the virus.