Health & Science

Can a virus cause obesity?

Could obesity be caused—at least in some cases—by the common cold? The idea, strange as it sounds, has been gaining momentum among scientists, and a recent study of children offers tantalizing new evidence, says ScienceNews.org. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego tested the blood of 67 obese and 57 normal-weight kids, ages 8 to 18, for the presence of antibodies against a common virus called adenovirus-36, which causes respiratory and intestinal distress. Of the kids in which antibodies were found, a remarkable 80 percent were obese, weighing on average 50 pounds more than the kids not exposed to the virus. Earlier studies have found some evidence that adenovirus may play a role in at least some forms of obesity in adults and animals, but this is the first to examine childhood obesity. “The data add credence to the concept that an infection can be a cause or contributor to obesity,” says pediatrician and study leader Jeffrey Schwimmer. Researchers speculate that the virus may cause fat-storing cells to mature and multiply faster, or hinder the cells’ ability to break down fat, causing them to grow larger. Nikhil Dhurandhar, a longtime researcher of “infectobesity,” says that if some forms of extreme weight gain are caused by infection, “then there is a potential to have a vaccine to prevent this type of obesity.”

Massage’s many benefits

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Nearly 9 percent of Americans get at least one massage every year, and they’re probably healthier for it: A new study suggests that massage not only relaxes the body, but also boosts the immune system and prompts beneficial hormonal changes. Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles subjected volunteers to what was perhaps the most pleasant experiment ever devised: Half received 45 minutes of deep-tissue Swedish massage, while the rest received light-touch massage for the same period. Just a single massage session induced marked physiological changes. Blood and saliva samples from the Swedish group registered lower levels of cortisol, a hormone elevated by stress, and arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can elevate cortisol; they also showed a rise in lymphocytes, white blood cells that aid the immune response. The light-massage recipients showed a greater increase in the “love hormone” oxytocin and a greater drop in a different hormone that prompts the release of cortisol. Despite the popularity of massage, psychiatrist and study author Mark Hyman Rapaport tells The New York Times, “there hasn’t been much physiological proof of the body’s heightened immune response following massage until now.’’

When narcissism works

Narcissists can be difficult to work with, since they’re self-absorbed and arrogant. Put a couple of them in a group, however, and you have a potential creative force, reports ScienceNOW.com. A team of psychologists from Stanford and Cornell universities divided volunteers into pairs and had one subject pitch a movie idea to the other. The most creative ideas, at least according to the listening subjects, turned out to be those pitched by people who ranked highest on a standard questionnaire for narcissism. That likely reflects the power of the narcissist’s charm, the researchers say. “Narcissists are just good in selling their ideas because they’re so confident and good at getting people to share their inflated views of themselves,” says study co-author Jack Goncalo. (When the same ideas were evaluated on paper only, they were deemed no more creative or compelling than the others.) When placed in teams, the narcissists produced more ideas for improving a real business—but only when a team contained exactly two narcissists. More than that and the competition among egos got in the way of a team’s productivity.

The world’s coral in a crisis

The world’s oceans are warming up, and coral reefs—often called the rain forests of the sea for the wealth of sea life they harbor—are dying in the heat, says The New York Times. Coral reefs are composed of millions of tiny animals, called polyps, that work with algae to capture sunlight and generate nutrients. The reefs play a critical role, supporting a quarter of all marine life and serving as the foundation of fishing industries and tourist economies. In 1998, the hottest year on record, 16 percent of shallow-water reefs died outright. This year so far has been just as hot. Under excessive heat, coral algae become toxic and are expelled by the polyps; the reefs bleach white, and the polyps starve or become vulnerable to disease. Reefs around the world are suddenly shedding color this year, and computer models predict a major bleaching in the Caribbean in the coming weeks, because waters there are still warming. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is also in danger, said Clive Wilkinson, director of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. “I am significantly depressed by the whole situation.”