Heart attack, stroke... People with this blood type are better protected than others
A, B, AB, O... What if our blood type wasn't just a letter on our health record, but revealed more about us than we thought? Several studies have shown this. They have focused in particular on the link between blood type and health. All of them highlight a reduced risk for the same blood type.
One of the main studies on the subject demonstrated that people with blood types A and B "had a 51% higher risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (a clot in a vein) and a 47% higher risk of developing a pulmonary embolism" (a clot in the lungs) compared to people with blood type O, according to the study published in 2020 in the renownedAmerican Heart Journal .
The researchers concluded that people with blood types A and B also had an 8% higher risk of heart attack and a 10% higher risk of heart failure compared to those with blood type O. This conclusion was similar to that of another study conducted by the European Society of Cardiology , which found " a 9% increased risk of cardiovascular events, particularly myocardial infarction," in people who were not blood type O.
Furthermore, areview of 48 studies highlighted that blood type could also influence the risk of stroke, and in particular early-onset strokes, that is, before the age of 60. The researchers had indeed "discovered that people with blood type A had a 16% higher risk of experiencing an early-onset stroke than people with other blood types," and that "people with blood type O had a 12% lower risk of experiencing a stroke than people with other blood types."
While these links still need to be confirmed, how can they be explained? Researchers have several hypotheses. According to the authors of the study from the European Society of Cardiology, the higher risk in people who do not have blood type O could be due to a greater presence in the blood of a protein associated with thrombosis. Furthermore, a substance " linked to inflammation and a worsening of the condition of patients with heart failure is also higher in people whose blood type is not O."
While this data may seem alarming to people who are not blood type O, there is not yet enough evidence to consider blood type a cardiovascular risk factor. In the meantime, the best weapon against cardiovascular disease is prevention! "There are many ways for people with these blood types to minimize their risk. These include exercising, eating a healthy diet, not smoking, and making other similar lifestyle changes," explained hematologist Raymond Comenzo .
L'Internaute
