Apart from allowing doctors to know what type of blood you will need if you ever happen to require a blood transfusion, your blood type can actually tell you surprising amount of information about your overall health. Medical scientists have managed to figure out several things that could happen to you based on whether or not you have a specific blood type.
There are four basic blood types: A, B, AB and O. And each of those is broken down in positive and negative subtypes.
1. People with different blood types are susceptible to different types of cancers.
It sounds strange but it's true. People with AB blood are 26% more likely to develop stomach cancer than people with type O or B. Type A blood also puts you at a 20% greater risk of stomach cancer as well.
People with type O blood are 37% less likely to get pancreatic cancer than the rest of the population.
2. Chances of getting pregnant.
Researchers at Yale University have found that women with type O blood are twice as likely as everyone else to produce lower quality eggs. These women also have higher levels of the fertility hormone FSH, which means lower chances of fertility. But when using donor eggs for IVF, patients with high FSH levels can still have a baby because it is an extremely effective method.
Women with type A blood are also less likely to have a decreased egg count as they get older.
3. Type B needs to share the bacterial wealth.
People with type B blood are full of bacteria, but the good kind of bacteria needed for things like digestion. They have 50,000 times the amount of good bacteria compared to type A or type O people. This means that they have better digestion and likely a stronger immune system.
4. The stress effect.
People with type O and type A blood actually have a harder time dealing with stress because of the chemicals they produce. People with type A blood actually produce more cortisol than the rest, and that makes handling stress a lot harder for them. People with type O blood end up pumping a lot more adrenaline when they are stressed out, which is never a good thing.
Keep reading to learn more about how your blood type affects your health.
5. Ulcers
Maybe because people with type O blood have a harder time dealing with stress makes them more susceptible to ending up with an ulcer.
6. Facing cognitive impairment.
No one fully understands why people with type AB blood face greater risks of cognitive impairment as they get older, but it has been proven that they have a harder time remembering things as they age. People with type AB blood got far lower scores than people with other types on tests that required them to remember lists of items.
7. Lower risk of heart disease.
Even though people with type O blood have a harder time getting pregnant, a harder time dealing with stress, and are even more susceptible to ulcers, it turns out that they are 23% less likely to develop heart disease.
8. Do mosquitoes hunt you?
Mosquitoes are actually picky eaters when they can be. It turns out that they prefer type O blood (sorry guys and gals). Type O blood is twice as attractive to them as type A, and they like type B and AB even less than that. If you ever wondered why you were being unmercifully hunted by these pests, here is your explanation.
Do you know your blood type?
