Blood type linked to stroke risks

I_give_it_2_u_str8
I_give_it_2_u_str8 Posts: 680 Member
edited October 5 in Social Groups
I dont have the link for the scientific study, but it was reported on chicago tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/os-blood-type-stroke-aha-meeting-2011-20111115,0,3717053.story


Your blood type may put you at higher risk of stroke, according to a large, long-term study presented Wednesday at the 84th annual meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA).

The study by Harvard School of Public Health used subjects with type O blood as their reference point, because they have the lowest risk of stroke. By comparison, researchers found that an AB blood type was associated with a 30 percent greater risk of ischemic stroke, said Li Qi, of Harvard, who presented the findings. Nine out of 10 strokes are ischemic.

In women, having type B blood was associated with a 17 percent greater risk of all types of stroke, he said.

In the study, which followed 90,000 men and women for more than 25 years, 43 percent of participants had type O blood, 36 percent had type A, 13 percent had B, and 8 percent had AB. That breakdown closely matches the U.S. population, said Qi.

A person's RH factor, whether positive or negative, did not make a difference.

Although patients can't change their blood types, researchers said they hoped the findings would encourage those with a higher-risk blood type to be even more careful to control their other stroke-risk factors.




Just curious, has anyone here obtained a genetic mapping of their DNA to understand their risks of hereditary/predisposed conditions? I feel like with these types of studies, we're moving in that direction.

Any thoughts?

Replies

  • helenium
    helenium Posts: 546 Member
    Regarding genetic mapping of DNA - probably going to start becoming more mainstream soon. Coming close to a "$1000 genome" in half an hour to sequence your entire genome, which would obviously reveal everything. Only problem is people may get some not-so-nice surprises e.g. BCRA1/2 mutants, Huntington's disease etc. which might be hard to cope with. Certainly good for sequencing the DNA of a transformed tumour cell and finding out what's been mutated and tailoring therapy towards that particular set of mutations to try and kill it.
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