Can Having Overweight Friends Make You Obese Too?

As a chiropractor in San Diego, I deal with many patients who are overweight. New research suggests being obese may spread through social networks like a malicious virus. And more importantly, your friends can even live hundreds of miles away! The surrender slogan for many overweight and obese individuals for years has been I can't help it - it's in my genes. And who could blame these overweight individuals? Even many doctors and researchers believed your ability to lose weight or pack on pounds was primarily a function of your genetic make-up.

If you were dealt a bad genetic hand, your fate was to be fat. Well, new information shows that might not be the case. Be Very Careful Who You "Befriend" The first is a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that the obesity epidemic could spread like a virus through social networks. When a person becomes obese, his friends and siblings are likely to gain weight as well.

Siblings of overweight people have a 40 percent increased risk of obesity, and their spouse's risk increased by 37 percent. The researchers evaluated a network of 12,067 people who underwent repeated measurements over a period of 32 years. They found that when a person becomes overweight, the chances that a friend will become overweight increase by 57 percent.

On the average, having an obese friend or sibling made a person gain seventeen pounds. This put many people over the body mass index (BMI) measure for obesity. Female friendships did not seem to be impacted by obesity as much as males. But the chances that a man might gain weight from having a fat friend doubled for so-called mutual friends -- friends who both listed each other as buddies.

Dr. Nicholas Christakis, the study's lead author stated that there is an important implication here for a broadening perspective on treatment for obesity. Attitudes are changing about what constitutes an acceptable body size in both men and women. "We don't think that this is the only cause of obesity. This is adding one additional factor or explanation."

One big question raised by the study was, "why didn't having overweight friends affect the women's weight?" Social norms may trump social networks here. Guys don't have the same social pressure. Men may be more influenced by their friends. There is a strong social bias for women towards thinness," said Dr. Robert Kushner, President of the American Board of Nutrition Physician Specialists.

Men may engage in joint activities that increase weight, such as consuming more calories or spending time in sedentary activities. Other diet experts agree that the inner workings of male friendships may have a lot to do with weight gain. "Current social stigma against obesity is greater among women, and women jointly discuss weight and support each other in dieting and exercising," said Jeffery Sobal, a Professor of Nutritional Science at Cornell University.

And here's something else that is interesting reported by researcher James Fowler of Harvard University and Nicholas Christakis of the University of California in San Diego. They stated that it is plausible that "areas of the brain that correspond to actions such as eating food may be stimulated if these actions are observed by others." This can cause you to become overweight.

Obesity, they say, is "socially contagious" and, remarkably, the researchers found that to be true even if your loved ones live far away. Social ties seem 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 Dr Fowler.

Despite their findings, the researchers said people should not sever their relationships just due to weight differences. There is a ton of research that suggests that having more friends makes you healthier and happier. So the last thing that you want to do is get rid of any of your friends. Clearly, this study shows the importance of behavior in weight gain overshadowing genetic make-up. Visit www.BackCareTreatment.com for more weight loss information.

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