Non-O blood groups are at greater risk of Cardio Vascular Disease

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Non-O blood groups are at greater risk of Cardio Vascular Disease

Tessa Kole, A Lead researcher at University Medical Center Gronigen, The Netherlands based on her studies on blood group and cardiovascular event has said that blood group of a person should be considered in the future as part of risk assessment in preventing cardiovascular disease.

Study was conducted on the data that included more than 1.3 million adults who were part of eleven cohorts across the nine studies. Team of scientists used this data to know the impact of blood group on coronary, cardiovascular and fatal coronary events.

Kole and team revealed that blood types and conditions related to cardiovascular system including heart attack, heart disease and failure and, cardiovascular death – all these are related to a person’s blood group!

Research team identified 771,113 individuals with A,B and AB group and 519,743 with O blood group for the coronary events analysis. Among this pool of individuals, 1.5 % (11,437) non-O group individuals experienced a coronary event when compared to 1.4% (7220) of people with O blood group. In combined cardiovascular events 2.5% (17449) individuals with non-O group experienced cardiovascular event compared to 2.3% O group.

Explaining her team’s findings Tessa Kole says “We demonstrate that having a non-O blood group is associated with a 9 percent increased risk of coronary events and a 9 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events, especially myocardial infarction.”

The reason for non-O group are at higher risk for cardiovascular events is possibly due to higher concentration of a blood clotting protein namely von Willebrand factor which has been associated with thrombotic events. Further Blood group A individuals are known to have higher cholesterol and all non-O blood group are at higher risk for heart failures due to galectin-3 which is linked to inflammation (in cardiovascular system.

As per Ms. Kole “more research is needed to identify the cause of the apparent increased cardiovascular risk in people with a non-O blood group. Obtaining more information about risk in each non-O blood group (A, B, and AB) might provide further explanations of the causes.”

As mentioned in BBC News report Dr Mike Knapton, an associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said the findings would not have a large impact on the current guidelines used to assess someone’s risk of a heart attack. “Most of a person’s risk estimation is determined by age, genetics (family history and ethnicity) and other modifiable risk factors including diet, weight, level of physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.

“People with a non-O blood group type – A, B and AB – need to take the same steps as anyone wanting to reduce their CVD risk.

Irrespective of whether your blood group is O or non-O group it is always better to take care of your diet. Quit smoking, balance your fat intake, include more vegetables, fruits and fibers in your food. Thinking “my blood group is O and it is okay to have cholesterol” is like inviting CVD to your door steps. If you’re unsure of your own particular blood type, you can easily find out by using a home blood type test kit or you can ask your physician to order a blood type test for you. Science discovers the facts and gives information and we need to take care of our health and lead healthy life!

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