Can your blood type help predict your health?

by Chris Sparling (Subscribe to Chris Sparling's posts)
Jun 19th 2008 7:31PM

Categories: HealthWatch, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Reviews & Products, Men's Health

Do you know your blood type? Honestly, I'm not sure I know mine, either. Save for a situation when a person would be giving or in need of receiving blood, is it really that important to know? According to an article that appears in the current issue of Men's Health, it's extremely important.

The article first breaks down, in diagram form, what percentage of men have what particular blood type. According to the chart, 45 percent are Type O (with 38 percent being Type O Positive and seven percent being Type O Negative); 40 percent are Type A (with 34 percent being Type A Positive and six percent being Type A Negative); 11 percent are Type B (with nine percent being Type B Positive and two percent being Type B Negative); and four percent of men are Type AB (with three percent being Type AB Positive and one percent being Type AB Negative).

The piece then proceeds to explain some health facts associated with each specific blood type. According to what is listed, men who are ...

Type O face an increased risk of lung cancer if they use a lot of salt and alcohol, say Danish researchers;

Type A are up to 40 percent more likely to develop gastric cancer, according to a Chinese study;

Type B face the fewest known blood type-specific risks overall, which may explain why their blood type is the most common among centenarians; and,

Type AB make great donor recipients, since they can receive all blood types

I don't know about you, but after reading this information, I suddenly felt the urge to find out where I fall in these different blood type risk pools.

Source

Comments (34)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Michael Kuckewich 6-19-2008 @ 10:22PM

Type AB may not contain the ABO antibodies, but having the AB antigens make it the least desirable donor blood.
O type blood lacking the antigen on the cell surface is the universal donor.

desi 6-19-2008 @ 10:23PM

what about the women and their blood type
there is no mention of that in thsi profile
and no metion that the article was a study on men's blood type only?

Desi 6-19-2008 @ 10:26PM

why is this research only about men's blood type?
don't women count..?

MyCbigmoma2 6-19-2008 @ 10:39PM

I am a 55 year old woman with Rh D- Blood type, where does this leave me, and with what kind of health predictions ??

Randy 6-20-2008 @ 9:55PM

Blood typing is complicated. There are actually more things that can be mismatched than whether you are A,B,AB, O-- and being Rh positive and negative for any of these. Luckily the two things that cause the most problem are the ABO system and the Rh system. The rh system is actually composed of several subsystems--but in laymen's terms if you are rh D NEGATIVE--THAT IS EQUIVALENT TO SAYING YOU ARE rh negative. I don't know how the article applies to you because--#1 the article only mentions men and you are a woman and #2 if the same diseases do apply to both men and women--you didn't mention your ABO type which is what the article is referring to.

Randy

Dave 6-19-2008 @ 10:39PM

Ummmm...ladies, calm down. The article is from Men's Health, so they talk about a study of men. A magazine like Woman's Day might have an article about a similar study of women's blood types and the association with prevalence of conditions.

read. and chill.

tam 6-19-2008 @ 10:57PM

How could anyone of any intelligence not know their blood type?!

MiPrather 6-21-2008 @ 2:28PM

I don't think blood type testing is as common as it used to be. Sure, I know my blood type and that of my siblings and parents (who were nurses, which probably also has something to do with it). I know my oldest son's blood type only because he was in NICU for a couple days after he was born. But my youngest has never been checked for that. Unless you are a blood donor or need surgery, it's really not something you need to know. Intelligence has nothing to do with it.

Oak 6-19-2008 @ 11:26PM

I'm always a bit curious when I see these sort of statistics, the implications of this report in men's health is important enough for further study to be done in the area, for example finding out why this happens with the different blood types, scientifically that question is not pointless curiousity, however I have a problem with some things, first of all it does not say how many men participipated in the study, with the info given it could be less than 25, also it does not talk about what kind of health the people had with the different blood types, I realize its not a science article but it should have at least said how many participated and what was the average age of the participants. To many variables unaccounted for, even if it is a rather sweeping generalazation, it still serves the purpose of making ppl try to find out more about their health.

Ken Pasternak 6-19-2008 @ 11:27PM

How relevent are the findings given the occurence of blood type within the general population? If 45% of our population has type O and 45% of cancer patients have type O, isn't this considered normal?

Fran 6-19-2008 @ 11:36PM

"Type AB make great donor recipients, since they can receive all blood types"

That's true only for AB+. Rh-negatives aren't supposed to receive Rh-positive blood - especially women of childbearing age, since being sensitized to the Rh factor can prove fatal to future Rh-negative offspring.

bostonshorty 6-19-2008 @ 11:52PM

GO TO WWW.HOSPITALSANTAMONICA.COM FOR TRUE CANCER TREATMENT AND CURES

Gordon 6-21-2008 @ 1:06AM

It is a great pity that the majority of the population does not donate blood, then you would all know your blood type and something about it. As it is 5% donate to keep the remaining 95% out of trouble. Come on people try it even if it isn't on a regular basis.

Megan 6-20-2008 @ 12:40AM

I was surprised to see how many people don't know their blood type.
I found out mine years ago by donating to the Red Cross

T 6-20-2008 @ 12:50AM

not a very well-written article.. doesn't stay on point. It's supposedly about health risks for each blood type and by the time he gets to the 'AB' type, he's defining something else (good blood recipients?)... and yes, what would be the difference between the same blood type in both men and women.

Bratmc5 6-20-2008 @ 12:51AM

please if anyone has any info on Squamous Cell Carsinomain the head and neck area. I would like info. My best friend has it. She is only 44 and has stage 4 cancer. Any extra information we can get as for treatments and such would be helpful.Thank You

tammy 6-20-2008 @ 4:02AM

My mom has this type of skin cancer and uses Retinin to keep it from coming back ..But had several removed.
She is in her 60's and is doing fine with sunscreen and keeps herself covered in the sun

raye 6-21-2008 @ 5:03PM

You mentioned Stage 4... What that means is that is has spread to other parts of the body, most likely vital organs through the lymph system. It means that the cancer can occur anywhere in the body and needs to be treated by a cancer specialist. Retin A will not take care of it... I wish your friend well...

Dot 6-20-2008 @ 2:11AM

Interesting that most centenarians are type B blood. My mother is almost 90 and in excellent health despite all others in her family passed early from either heart attacks or cancer.