Does your blood type carry a high risk of triggering a stroke? Here's what a study says

In human biology, blood type has a significant role to play and is known to impact a person's well-being in various ways.

In a new study, unravelling one of the major impacts of blood type, it has been found that some blood types carry the increased risk of triggering an early stroke.

In biology, human blood types have been distinguished using the ABO blood group system, which categorises them as A, B, AB, and O blood types.

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The blood types are given these labels on the basis of particular chemical components present in their red blood cells.

Blood type and its connection with stroke

In 2022, a detailed research venture looked into the connections between the chances of having an early stroke and the gene responsible for the A1 subgroup.

The data from 48 genetic studies, which included 17,000 stroke patients and nearly 600,000 non-stroke individuals—all ranging between the ages 18 and 59—was scrutinised by the researchers.

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A genome-wide search was conducted by the researchers and two locations were found to be strongly associated with an earlier risk of stroke.

One of these locations was found to be coinciding with the site where the gene for blood type was present.

After the researchers closely looked at specific blood type genes, they found that those people whose genome had a version of the A group had a 16 per cent higher chance of suffering stroke before they turned 60 in comparison to other blood types.

Meanwhile, individuals who had a gene for group O1 were at 12 per cent lower stroke risk.

Senior author and vascular neurologist Steven Kittner from theUniversity of Maryland shared these findings.

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The experts emphasised that people with type A blood had extra stroke risk, however, it is not very high and they need to go through regular check-ups.

As per experts, the increased risk is likely related to components which are involved in blood clotformation, which include platelets, cells lining blood vessels, and other circulating proteins.

In the study, when people who suffered a stroke before 60 were compared to those who had one after that age, it was found that increasedstroke riskwith type A blood significantly declined in the late-onset stroke group.

(With inputs from agencies)