People from blood groups A, B, and AB are at greater risk of heart disease than those with type O, a new study finds. Or does it?
BBC (“Blood group ‘linked to heart disease’“):
People from blood groups A, B and AB are more at risk of heart disease than those with the more common blood type O, a study suggests.
Those with the rarest blood group, AB, are the most vulnerable – they are 23% more likely to suffer from heart disease than those with blood group O.
The researchers do not know why this is, but are now looking at how blood groups respond to improved lifestyle.
The findings are published in an American Heart Association Journal.
The study also found that for individuals with blood group B the risk of heart disease increased by 11%, and for blood type A, by 5%.
Lead author Prof Lu Qi, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said: “While people cannot change their blood type, our findings may help physicians better understand who is at risk of developing heart disease.
“It’s good to know your blood type the same way you should know your cholesterol or blood pressure numbers.
Reduce the risk
“If you know you’re at higher risk, you can reduce the risk by adopting a healthier lifestyle, such as eating right, exercising and not smoking.”
This is good advice. Thankfully, I’m an O-, so I can continue my gluttonous ways.
The British Heart Foundation stressed it is important that we all look after ourselves to reduce the risk.
Killjoys.
At any rate, one presumes they’ve done some basic multi-variate analysis here and ruled out blood type/group being a proxy for race, ethnicity, and lifestyle.
The study did not look at why different blood types appear to have different risks of heart disease.
Prof Qi said: “Blood type is very complicated, so there could be multiple mechanisms at play.”
[…]
The findings are based on two large US analytical studies – 62,073 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 27,428 adults from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. They were between the ages of 30 and 75 and followed for 20 years.
As this study group was predominantly Caucasian, the researchers say it is not clear if their findings would be reflected in other ethnic groups.
The work is published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, an American Heart Association journal.
The team is now looking at whether people with different blood groups respond differently to changes in lifestyle, such as diet, exercise, cholesterol intake.
So . . . we actually don’t know anything useful?
