CDC: Jump in Obesity Rate, Now 26.7% of U.S.. Xeno: It's a virus.

The obesity rate among U.S. adults reached 26.7% in 2009, up from 25.6% in 2007, according to a CDC report released on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Obesity in adults is defined by a body mass index of 30 or higher.

The report estimated that the increase corresponds to an additional 2.4 million U.S. residents who are now considered obese, raising the U.S. total to 72.5 million residents.

The issue particularly was concerning in the South, where obesity rates exceeded 30% in nine states in 2009, compared with just three states in 2007.

The report -- titled "Vital Signs: State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults -- United States, 2009" -- found that Mississippi had the highest obesity rate, at 34.4% (Jackson Randall, Wall Street Journal, 8/4).

Although no state or Washington, D.C., met CDC's Healthy People 2010 obesity target of 15%, only Colorado and the district came close, with obesity rates below 20% (Stobbe, AP/Los Angeles Times, 8/3).

According to the latest CDC report:

• Obesity rates were higher among people ages 50 and older, but officials noted that the aging population might account for only part of the general increase in obesity rates;


• The obesity rate was highest among non-Hispanic black women, at 41.9%;


• Blacks and Hispanics were more likely than whites to be obese;


• People with higher levels of education were less likely to be heavier than people with lower levels of education (Grady, New York Times, 8/3);


• Medical costs for U.S. residents who are obese were $1,429 higher than for people of normal weight; and


• U.S. medical costs attributed to obesity were estimated to be as high as $147 billion in 2006 (Wall Street Journal, 8/4).

Reasons for Lower Rates in Colorado, D.C.

William Dietz -- director of CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity division -- said that Colorado's obesity of rate of 19%, the lowest in the country, likely is a result of the state's efforts to improve biking and walking trails and encourage more residents to use them (Fox, Reuters, 8/3).

He said it is unclear why the obesity rate in Washington, D.C., was as low as it is, particularly because the city has a large number of black residents, who typically have higher rates of obesity (New York Times, 8/3).  ...

via CDC Report Finds Jump in Obesity Rate, Now at 26.7% of U.S. Populace - California Healthline.

Some see that obesity is "socially contagious" but I believe it is actually a contagious disease, probably viral.

There is a lot of good advice to help us avoid becoming obese, such as “Eat less,” and “Exercise.” But here’s a new and surprising piece of advice based on a promising area of obesity research: “Wash your hands.”

There is accumulating evidence that certain viruses may cause obesity, in essence making obesity contagious, according to Leah D. Whigham, the lead researcher in a new study, “Adipogenic potential of multiple human adenoviruses in vivo and in vitro in animals,” in the January issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology published by the American Physiological Society.

The study, by Whigham, Barbara A. Israel and Richard L. Atkinson, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found that the human adenovirus Ad-37 causes obesity in chickens. This finding builds on studies that two related viruses, Ad-36 and Ad-5, also cause obesity in animals. ...

“It’s a big mental leap to think you can catch obesity.” However, other diseases once thought to be the product of environmental factors are now known to stem from infectious agents. For example, ulcers were once thought to be the result of stress, but researchers eventually implicated bacteria, H. pylori, as a cause. - scienceblog

According to a number of studies (and news stories floating around the internet), at least 30% of obesity cases could be caused by adenoviruses.

... The recent paper in the research journal Obesity (A Human Adenovirus Enhances Preadipocyte Differentiation - Sharada D. Vangipuram, Jonathan Sheele, Richard L. Atkinson, Thomas C. Holland and Nikhil V. Dhurandhar), shows explicitly that if you take Adenovirus type 36, and give it something to grow in, it'll create fatty tissue as fast as it can. And the cells express a gene from the virus itself, so it may be acting as a retrovirus. ...

What to do:

- Sure, exercise and eat less, but also, you need to...

- Spend less time with other obese people.

- Wash your hands frequently.

- Cover your mouth when you sneeze (The virus can live for a few days outside of the body in aerosol)

- Take Omega-3 fatty acids (but not too much). Omega 3's reduce the ability of viral capsids to cross the cytosome by modifying the structure of the lipid raft.

- take EGCg - a green tea extract - one paper shows that adenovirus infection is inhibited by it. (Link to paper).

- Eat more hot & spicy foods. Genistein (a derivative of soybeans), EGCG (a green-tea extract), and Capsaicin (something found in hot chillis and cayenne pepper)  encourage fat cells to not be formed in the first place, and to release their fat stores and kill themselves.