Researchers have discovered that people with type A blood may be more likely than people with other blood types to experience a stroke before the age of 60.
The latest meta-analysis reveals that those with blood type O are less likely to get an early-onset stroke.
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the United States examined the connection between genetic traits blood type and stroke in their study, which was conducted.
They did this by analyzing information from 48 genetic studies on adult patients with ischemic strokes between the ages of 18 and 59. An obstruction in the blood supply to the brain results in ischemic strokes.
The trials involved approximately 600,000 healthy controls who had never suffered a stroke and about 17,000 stroke patients overall.
According to co-principal investigator of the study Braxton Mitchell, “We were interested in trying to find the genetic drivers of stroke.”
Mitchell, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, stated that there is a significant genetic component as well as environmental component to stroke.
He and his colleagues looked at people’s genetic profiles to further investigate this and discovered a connection between early-onset stroke and the region of the chromosome that contains the gene that determines a person’s blood type.
An individual’s blood type is determined by the genes they inherit from their parents and is one of the four major blood groups that exist in humans: A, B, AB, and O. O blood type is the most prevalent.
In contrast to persons with late-onset stroke and those who had never had a stroke, early-onset stroke patients were more likely to have blood type A and less likely to have blood type O.
According to Mitchell, having blood type A lowers the risk of later-onset stroke by just around 5% while raising it by about 16% for early-onset stroke.
“If you have blood type O, you’re 12% less likely to have an early-onset stroke, but only 4% less likely to have a stroke later in life.”
Very little increase in the risk of stroke
Although blood type A was associated with an elevated risk of early-onset stroke, the researchers stressed that this link was very weak.
They emphasize that people with type A blood need not be concerned about suffering an early-onset stroke and should not undergo further screening or medical testing in light of this finding.
Clinically, we shouldn’t be concerned that having certain blood types puts us at an increased risk of stroke, Mitchell added.
“If we want to lower our risk of stroke, they are really the characteristics that we should be paying attention to,” says the expert. “There are other risk factors for stroke that are considerably more essential, like hypertension and smoking, for example.”
Having said that, he continued, “We don’t know yet, but it’s one of the things we’re looking at, whether you have those risk factors and you also have blood type A, does that make those risk factors even more powerful.”
Although the exact cause of blood type A’s greater risk is yet unknown, researchers believe that blood clotting factors may be a contributing factor.
According to other studies, people with an A blood type may be somewhat more likely to experience deep vein thrombosis, a form of blood clot that occurs in the legs.
The pro-clotting history of blood group A likely increases your risk for clotting-related disorders, stroke, according to Mitchell.
Participants in the analysis had a rather low level of variety; the bulk of them were of European ancestry, which the researchers acknowledge as a drawback of the study and encourage in future research on a more diverse population.
Everybody has a unique set of genetic variations, and these variations frequently tend to congregate together among people of related descent, according to Mitchell.
Therefore, by simply examining a tiny number of ancestral groups, we could be overlooking some significant mutations.
Blood type and the risk of developing other diseases
Other studies have revealed connections between blood type and the likelihood of acquiring other health disorders, so it’s not simply stroke risk.
People with blood types A, B, or AB, for instance, are more likely to develop coronary heart disease than people with blood type O, according to research from the Harvard School of Public Health.
The danger was highest for people with blood type AB, which is the rarest.
According to previous studies, people with type A blood are more likely than people with other blood types to get stomach cancer.
Though studies have linked certain health concerns with specific blood types, it’s important to remember that we still don’t fully understand the reasons behind these associations.
In light of this, how concerned should someone with type A blood be?
According to Mitchell, a person can’t genuinely change their blood type. Additionally, there are additional stroke risk factors that are more controllable, such as smoking behaviors, blood pressure, alcohol usage, and level of exercise.
Don’t worry at all, Mitchell advised. “I would think about these other modifiable risk factors and work on those, because they’re risk factors not only for stroke, but also for heart disease, cancer, and other conditions as well.”
Great step’ in lowering the risk of stroke
Clare Jonas from the UK charity Stroke Association commented on the findings and called them a “wonderful start” towards better monitoring of early stroke risk factors.
According to Jonas, who is the Research Communications and Engagement Lead at the Stroke Association, which offers assistance to those who have experienced a stroke, “the majority of strokes happen to older people, due to reasons we are commonly aware of like high blood pressure, thickening of the arteries, or atrial fibrillation.”
She stated in a statement that because the causes of stroke in young adults aren’t fully known, it’s more difficult to avoid them.
“We can’t yet design specific preventions for early stroke since we don’t yet know why people with blood type A might be at increased risk of early stroke.”
However, she continued, “this research is a tremendous step in assisting healthcare practitioners in identifying who might benefit the most from being monitored for other risk factors and receiving interventions to help minimize risk.”
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