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Blood type may be linked to heart disease, study suggests
Your blood type may impact your likeliness of a heart attack or stroke, finds a recent study.
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Researchers found that people in a non-O blood group have an increased risk of developing heart disease, due to the higher levels of a blood-clotting protein within people with A, B and AB blood. (Shutterstock/File)
Your blood type may impact your likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, finds a recent study.
Researchers found that people in a non-O blood group have an increased risk of developing heart disease, as a result of the higher levels of a blood-clotting protein within people with A, B and AB blood.
Originally presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress, the study looked at the data of 1.3 million people who had been involved in past research. There they found that within a non-O blood group, 15 in 1,000 people suffered a heart attack, whereas it was 14 in 1,000 for people with blood group O.
While the increase in risk is small, it becomes much more significant once applied to larger groups, such as the whole population.
Past research has also found that those with AB, the rarest blood type, are the group most likely to suffer from a heart attack or stroke.
Read also: Study finds link between stress and heart disease
"In the future, blood group should be considered in risk assessment for cardiovascular prevention, together with cholesterol, age, sex and systolic blood pressure,” said the study's author Tessa Kole from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands to the BBC.
Still, Dr. Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, believed that these new findings were unlikely to leave a lasting impact on current guidelines.
"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,” he said. “People with a non-O blood group type -- AO, BO and AB -- need to take the same steps as anyone wanting to reduce their cardiovascular disease risk." (sul/kes)
