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Blood type reveals how brain will age

By Chukwuma Muanya with agency reports
08 June 2015   |   11:47 pm
YOUR blood type could have a major impact on your brain as you age, researchers have found. They found those with an ‘O’ blood type have more grey matter in their brain than those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types. This helps protect against diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Researchers found those with an ‘O’…

BrainYOUR blood type could have a major impact on your brain as you age, researchers have found.

They found those with an ‘O’ blood type have more grey matter in their brain than those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types.

This helps protect against diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Researchers found those with an ‘O’ blood type have more grey matter in their brain, which helps protect against diseases such as Alzheimer’s, than those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types.

Researchers found those with an ‘O’ blood type have more grey matter in their brain, which helps protect against diseases such as Alzheimer’s, than those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types.

According to Wikipedia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also known as Alzheimer disease, or just Alzheimer’s, accounts for 60 per cent to 70 per cent of cases of dementia. It is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss).

Although all blood is made of the same basic elements, not all blood is alike.

There are eight different common blood types, which are determined by the presence or absence of certain antigens – substances that can trigger an immune response if they are foreign to the body.

Since some antigens can trigger a patient’s immune system to attack the transfused blood, safe blood transfusions depend on careful matching.

The study conducted by researchers at the University of Sheffield is the first to reveal blood types play a role in the development of the nervous system and may cause a higher risk of developing cognitive decline.

The research was carried out in collaboration with the IRCCS San Camillo Hospital Foundation in Venice.

Research fellow Matteo De Marco and Professor Annalena Venneri, from the University’s Department of Neuroscience, made the discovery after analysing the results of 189 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans from healthy volunteers.

They calculated the volumes of grey matter within the brain and explored the differences between different blood types.

The results, published in The Brain Research Bulletin, show that individuals with an ‘O’ blood type have more grey matter in the posterior proportion of the cerebellum.

In comparison, those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types had smaller grey matter volumes in temporal and limbic regions of the brain, including the left hippocampus, which is one of the earliest part of the brain damaged by Alzheimer’s disease.

These findings indicate that smaller volumes of grey matter are associated with non-’O’ blood types.

As we age a reduction of grey matter volumes is normally seen in the brain, but later in life this grey matter difference between blood types will intensify as a consequence of ageing.

Those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types had smaller grey matter volumes in temporal and limbic regions of the brain, including the left hippocampus, which is one of the earliest part of the brain damaged by Alzheimer’s disease.

Those with ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood types had smaller grey matter volumes in temporal and limbic regions of the brain, including the left hippocampus, which is one of the earliest part of the brain damaged by Alzheimer’s disease.

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