Health Risks Associated With Blood Types: Do You Know Your Blood Type

Recent research has suggested that if you understand your blood type and the potential, health risks associated with your blood type, you may be able to take effective measures to improve your health status.

At the same time, in order to address the question of health risks associated with blood types, it is important to understand that blood types or blood groups are genetic or inherited. Antigens or proteins on the red blood cells determine the blood type inherited from one’s parents. There are four blood groups, A, B, AB and O. ABO blood typing determines one’s blood type. 

Blood typing determines one’s Rh factor, as well.  

Research into blood types and the health risks associated with them has led to an assumption that there may be serious health risks associated with various blood types.

For example, the article, “Some blood types might have a higher stroke risk,” suggests, “Your blood type might affect your risk for stroke. People with AB and women with B were a little more likely to suffer one than people with O blood - the most common type, a study found. The research can't prove such a link. But it fits with other work tying A, B and AB to more risk of blood clots in the legs and heart attacks. Blood type O also has been tied to an increased risk of bleeding, which implies less chance of clots, the cause of most strokes.”

With respect to the possibility of strokes, there are numerous adverse, health-related factors to consider. These include abuse of nicotine, alcohol, drug or substance abuse. 

A person’s lifestyle is a major contributing factor to his or her health or potential health risks, like strokes. It is not sufficient to use the excuse that a genetic factor like a blood type is an all-encompassing factor with relation to strokes.      

"There's increasing evidence that blood type might influence risk of chronic disease," Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests.

Whether one can categorize a stroke as a chronic disease, casts a different light on the topic. Perhaps one might suggest that it is a disease in terms of being a state of dis-ease for the human body. 

“Although stroke is a disease of the brain, it can affect the entire body. A common disability that results from stroke is complete paralysis on one side of the body, called hemiplegia.”

Is a stroke or the tendency to have a stroke, an inherited, genetic disease?

Ongoing research into blood types may help to determine this in time. The research under discussion here suggested that both “Men and women with type AB had a 26 percent increased risk of stroke compared to those with type O. Women but not men with B blood had a 15 percent greater risk compared to those with O.”

The immune system responses supposedly play a role in this.

We inherit our genetic structure from our parents. Altering our genetic factors effectively is still in the realm of inquiry and its benefits yet to be determined.

In the meantime, one must conclude that taking positive, constructive measures like exercise, diet and reduction of stress related factors are equally important in terms of one’s health and the possibility of stroke activity.