It’s been a while since i’ve taken an anatomy class and now I can’t remember all of the blood types and the order in which they were most common to the least common.
Also, what effect, if any, does a particular blood type have on a person?
For example, a friend was telling me that people with Type A blood have a higher likelihood of certain food allergies such as tomatoes. Is this even remotely true?
Type A blood has the A antigen (well duh! )
Type B blood has the B antigen
Type AB has both the A antigen and the B antigen
Type O has neither antigen
if the sample is rhesus positive then it contains something (a protein) that is also found in the rhesus monkey, if it is negative then it doesn’t.
People with type AB can be given blood from any group (universal acceptors)
People with Type O blood can only be given type O, but their blood can be given to anyone (Universal donors)
don’t know anything about certain blood types causing a predilection towards allergies etc.
There are many different kinds of blood types, but most people think of the ABO system, which ultimately describes which chains of sugar molecules you have sticking out on the surface of your red blood cells. There’s a chain we’ve labelled “A” and a chain we’ve labelled “B”. If you have both of them, you’re AB. If you have neither, you’re “O”.
This food allergy crap is just that. It’s the latest pseudoscience claptrap that’s been floating around to help justify the sale of fraudulant diet programs. There’s absolutely no evidence to support it. It’s right up there with homeopathy and pain-relieving copper bracelets. The only affect blood type has on a person is to determine which blood types you’ll react negatively to. Well, the Rh factor can also cause problems during pregnancy, so I guess that’s two affects.
Not to worry ZaLucky1 (this seems a misnomer in light of this thread ), there has been much progress made lately with blood substitutes. In 5 years I doubt they’ll give people whole blood for anything other than long term illnesses, since with a substitute there is no chance of disease.