Depending on where they are, they may exert a different effect on different diseases - and depending on the disease, there are different theories,” Arash Etemadi, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, tells Yahoo Health. “Blood group antigens play different roles in different places of the body. “The reason people with blood type O are universal donors is that there is an absence of the A and B antigens - no one’s body is going to form antibodies to attack blood type O.” (If you’re A, and you received type B blood, your body would attack the foreign antibody.)Īlong these same lines, type AB is a universal acceptor - since it has both A and B antigens, people with AB can take in all kinds of blood from the ABO group, but only type O can give to anyone.
O is when you don’t have either,” she says. “Blood type A has the A antigen B has at least one copy of the B antigen and AB has a copy of A and B. Your type is determined by either the presence or absence of antigens on red blood cells, which can trigger an immune response in your body, Kristine Alexander, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in medicine at the University of Vermont, tells Yahoo Health. To answer that, we first have to understand the ABO blood group system: There are four types: A, B, AB, and O (or ABO). This all begs the question: Is type O blood protective? Science suggests that people with AB blood are at an increased risk of memory issues down the line compared to people with O blood. And other research pins people with O blood as less likely to experience certain kinds of cancer, like pancreatic and gastric cancers. A new study from the Karolinska Institute shows that people with type O blood are less likely to die from malaria. Research suggests that people with type O blood are at a lower risk for cardiovascular health issues like stroke and heart attack.