Strategery Wrote:
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> Studies on humans show that 33 per cent of obese
> adults had contracted an adenovirus called AD-36
> at some point in their lives, according to an
> article in the UK's Daily Express, whereas only 11
> per cent of lean men and women have had the virus.
>
I can't believe that any scientist would even consider publishing a "study" like this. Correlation does not imply causation.
Why would 11 percent of non-fat people have the same virus and not get fat? Why do only 33 percent of fat people have the virus but not the rest? Could it be possible that more fat people have the virus because their obesity makes them more susceptible to the virus? Or that they eat so much damn food that they are more likely to eat something contaminated with the virus? Or they have other lifestyle factors related to being fat that puts them more at risk of the virus?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
In a widely-studied example, numerous epidemiological studies showed that women who were taking combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) also had a lower-than-average incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD), leading doctors to propose that HRT was protective against CHD. But controlled trials showed that HRT caused a small and significant increase in risk of CHD. Re-analysis of the data showed that women undertaking HRT were more likely to be from socio-economic groups ABC1, with better than average diet and exercise regimes. The two were coincident effects of a common cause, rather than cause and effect as had been supposed.[1]
However, it should be noted that:
Researchers at the Aabo Akademi found that Finns who speak the language of their Nordic neighbors were up to 25 percent less likely to fall ill than those who do not.