Study: Obesity is 'socially contagious'

  If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a new study that suggests obesity is "socially contagious" and can spread easily from person to person.

  The large, federally funded study found that to be true even if your loved ones lived far away. Social ties seemed to play a surprisingly strong role, even more than genes are known to do.

  "We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person's weight status as friends who are right next door," said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.

  The study found a person's chances of becoming obese went up 57 percent if a friend did, 40 percent if a sibling did and 37 percent if a spouse did.

  Researchers think it's more than just people with similar eating and exercise habits hanging out together. Instead, it may be that having relatives and friends who become obese changes one's idea of what is an acceptable weight.

  Despite their findings, the researchers said people should not sever their relationships.

  "There is a ton of research that suggest that having more friends makes you healthier," Fowler said. "So the last thing that you want to do is get rid of any of your friends."

  The study was published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the National Institute on Aging.

  Obesity is a global public health problem. About 1.5 billion adults worldwide are overweight, including more than 400 million who are obese. Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese.

  Much of the recent research focus has been on the intense hunt for obesity genes involved in appetite or calorie burning. Treatment has been mainly centered on helping individuals curb their weight through better diet and fitness.

  The findings could open a new avenue for treating this worldwide epidemic. The researchers said it might be helpful to treat obese people in groups instead of just the individual. " 

  Because people are interconnected, their health is interconnected," said lead author Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a Harvard sociologist.

  (Reuters)

  如果你的朋友和家人發胖了，你也得小心了！一項最新研究表明，肥胖具有“社會傳染性”，很容易在人與人之間傳播。

  該項由聯邦政府資助的大規模研究發現，即使親朋好友住得很遠，這種情況也不可避免。社會聯系對這一問題的影響十分顯著，甚至超過基因。

  研究報告的撰寫者之一、圣地亞哥加州大學的詹姆斯·福勒說：“我們驚訝的發現，住在幾百英里遠的朋友對一個人體重的影響與住在隔壁的朋友同樣大。”

  研究發現，如果一個人的朋友發胖，那么這個人發胖的幾率會上升57%；如果他的兄弟姐妹發胖，他發胖的幾率會增加40%；如果配偶發胖，他發胖的幾率則會增加37%。

  研究人員認為，這并不只是幾個飲食和鍛煉習慣相似的人總呆在一起造成的，可能是因為親朋好友發胖會改變一個人對于“可接受體重”的概念。

  盡管有了這些新發現，研究人員稱友誼還是應該維持的。

  福勒說：“大量研究表明，朋友越多，你的健康狀況會越好。所以，與朋友斷交是最不應該的。”

  該項研究由國家老齡問題研究所資助，其結果在周四的《新英格蘭醫學雜志》上發表。

  肥胖是一個全球性的公共健康問題。全世界約有15億成年人超重，其中約4億多肥胖。三分之二的美國人超重或肥胖。

  目前大多數研究的重點都是尋找與食欲或熱量消耗有關的肥胖基因。對于肥胖的治療方式也主要是通過更合理的飲食和健身來控制體重。

  該項研究結果可能將為治療這一全球性的“流行病”提供新的方法。研究人員稱，對肥胖者進行小組治療可能比個體治療有效。

  研究報告主要撰寫者、哈佛大學社會學家尼古拉斯·克里斯塔基斯博士說：“因為人與人是互相聯系的，所以他們的健康也聯系在一起。”