Although there is no scientific evidence that blood type diets actually work, or that blood type affects character and destiny, the same cannot be said about predisposition to certain diseases. The results of some studies suggest that there is still some connection between blood type and health.
The biological basis of this connection cannot always be explained; there are no guarantees that you will or will not get sick from a particular disease, but knowledge about the possible risks can still be useful.
Good news for people with blood type 0 (I) – compared to other groups, they have a significantly reduced risk of heart attacks, strokes, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Moreover, the maximum risk of these diseases is in people with the rarest blood group, AB (IV). In them, compared with group 0 (I), the risk is increased by 23%, in people with group B (III) – by 11%, and in people with group A (II) – by 5%.
This may be due to increased levels of a protein that promotes blood coagulation (thickening) and the formation of blood clots.
In particular, such results were shown by a study conducted by scientists from the School of Public Health at Harvard University, whose article was published in 2012 in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. An increased risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with blood types other than O (I) was also reported in a study presented at the 2017 World Congress on Acute Heart Failure.
Dementia
A study involving 30 thousand people, conducted by scientists from the University of Vermont (USA), showed that people with blood type AB (IV), compared with other groups, have an 82% increased risk of memory and thinking problems leading to dementia . This may be due to the predisposition of people with this blood type to vascular disorders.
Therefore, if you have blood type IV, it is especially important for you to lead a healthy lifestyle, monitor your blood pressure, stop smoking, eat right and exercise.
Stomach and pancreatic cancer
Another piece of good news for people with blood type 0 (I) is that compared to other groups, they have a significantly reduced risk of getting these two types of cancer. At the same time, the risk of stomach cancer is especially increased in people with blood type A (II), possibly because they are more likely to have the gastric bacterium Heliobacter pylori, which contributes to the development of ulcers and inflammation of the gastric mucosa. True, there is evidence that people with the first blood group have an increased risk of developing gastric and duodenal ulcers, which are also caused by the bacterium Heliobacter pylori, but, for some reason, this is less likely to lead to cancer.
In addition, as Norwegian scientists have found , people with blood groups A (II), B (III) and AB (IV) have an increased susceptibility to pancreatic cancer.
Malaria
Again, the good news for people with blood type 0 (I) is that they are protected from this infection because the causative agent of the disease, Plasmodium falciparum, has difficulty attaching to antigen-deprived red blood cells.
Diabetes mellitus type 2
There are suggestions that people with blood groups A (II) and B (III) have an increased chance of developing type 2 diabetes, but what this may be related to is still unclear.