• Welcome to Crohn's Forum, a support group for people with all forms of IBD. While this community is not a substitute for doctor's advice and we cannot treat or diagnose, we find being able to communicate with others who have IBD is invaluable as we navigate our struggles and celebrate our successes. We invite you to join us.

What is your blood type?

What is your blood type?

  • A positive

    Votes: 46 23.1%
  • A negitive

    Votes: 20 10.1%
  • B positive

    Votes: 20 10.1%
  • B negative

    Votes: 6 3.0%
  • AB positive

    Votes: 13 6.5%
  • AB negative

    Votes: 4 2.0%
  • O positive

    Votes: 61 30.7%
  • O negative

    Votes: 29 14.6%

  • Total voters
    199
It might be interesting to see if blood type has a factor in having an autoimmune disease. Maybe positives have more of a chance to have it rather than negitives...?

I'm 0 positive
 
A lot more o positives in the world than I thought there were lol. I was reading about the eat right for your blood type and o positives are supposed to eat more red meat and fish rather than vegtables...no wonder we have IBD lol we were meant to have it lol
 
Location
N.Z
When i had my Blood transfusion they said i was Rhesus Negative ??? Which one is that ??
Hi Joleen,
without getting to complicated the Rhesus factor (or Rh) is the postive or negative part of the poll above. So you have your blood type then you are postive or negative of that blood type depending if you have a certain antigen in your blood.
(Some issues can come up in pregnancy if the mother is Rh negative an baby is positve.)

M
 
interesting how most are As and Os. and i'm also surprised at how many negatives there are. there's less than 15% of the population (USA) that's negative. i'm O-.
 
Susan,

Ive been doing the B diet for a couple months now working with a naturopathic doctor. The toughest part is the "diet" part - last thing I need is to lose more weight...

Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions.

Oren

B+

And I am very interested in the Blood Type Diet. What it says rings very true for me.
 
I know I am type O. Not sure if it is positive or neg. I remember my one doctor telling me the positive and negative does not really mean much though. I also have the eat right for your blood type book. Yes, type o's are suppose to have a more acidic diet in order for the body to function well, at least that is what they say. I have got to say that I do notice that when my urine gets too alkaline, my bladder starts to hurt. It is better when the urine is acidic. Not sure if that means anything though.
 
HELLO...MY brother with the Crohn's is O NEGATIVE...and the positive or negative is only important if you're being transfused...hehe...a neg can't get transfused with pos. blood BUT a pos. can get transfused with neg. blood....fyi :)
 
PS)...DIDN'T realize you could ever be in remission with Crohn's..my brother has had some years better/worse than other ones and can tell when he's about to get a STRICTURE by his pain level and fever and amount of loose stool able to come out..less obviously when they'res a stricture..I pray he gets in remission someday..he's going through a terrible time...so skinny.
 
I found this table online, telling you the percentage of general population with each blood type. So far I'm not seeing any significant variations in the blood type of people with IBD. Yes there are a lot of As and Os, but that's because they are the most common blood groups!

ABO Blood Group Percentage of Population with this Group
O + 37%
O - 7%
Total Blood Type O 44%
A + 35%
A - 7%
Total Blood Type A 42%
B + 8%
B - 2%
Total Blood Type B 10%
AB + 3%
AB - 1%
Total Blood Type AB 4%
Total Pos 83%
Total Neg 17%
 

kiny

Well-known member
It doesn't seem to have anything to do with blood type, those stats are what you would find in a non crohn group of people. Never read that crohn had anything to do with blood type.
 

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
There has been speculation regarding the why the different blood types exist. It is generally accepted that A is the oldest blood type, B branched from A, and then O branched from A later on. Its all due to mutation, the theory behind O is that it was created as a response to malaria.

The blood type of a person has is their parent's type combined with random chance. If a person has AB blood, it is impossible for their offspring to have O blood. It does not matter who the other parent is. O+O will always produce O, A+A can produce either A or O, however A+B can produce A,B, AB or O. This is why any sort of blood type diet is flawed.

I have no clue where I was going with this. In any case, I'm A+.
 
There has been speculation regarding the why the different blood types exist. It is generally accepted that A is the oldest blood type, B branched from A, and then O branched from A later on. Its all due to mutation, the theory behind O is that it was created as a response to malaria.
That's interesting, would that mean an abnormally high number of people with sickle-cell disease also have O blood type since they are both adaptions in the face of malaria?
 

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
I am by no means an expert, just a guy who has a hatred of the blood type diet and a weird antigen that has read a lot about blood types.

When compared to Caucasians, people of African descent have a higher incidence of type O blood, and 98% of people who have sickle cell disease (which I just looked up) are of African descent. It's a possibility, but I'm not a phlebotanist. It somewhat makes sense, but blood types have such an random element to them that it could be coincidence.
 

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
It's not outlandish to think such a thing. I've got an antigen that grants me increased resistance to malaria, I acquired it through repeated blood transfusions, it is not super common in white people, however really common with people of African descent. Malaria is not a global issue. Evolution happens, certain adaptations might not always be needed forever, but they do happen.
 

Cross-stitch gal

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Vancouver,
My blood type is personal and confidential and Crohns has no relation to blood type. This thread is highly irregular.
MC, we're just seeing if there's any difference in amount of blood types with IBD. Since there are more people with O blood, it makes sense to me that there would be more people around here with O. It's alright if you're not interested in voting MC. Thank you anyway!
 

Cross-stitch gal

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Vancouver,
I'm ashamed to say I have no idea. How do I find out? When I donate blood would they tell me? Or is there an easy test for it?
They should have it in your medical records. I would think that you should be able to call them, write your doctor or ask next time you see your doctor and they'll be able to tell you.
 
There are at home kits you can buy! I had no idea. Ordering them now. Funny how my daughter has had pints of blood drawn from her but i have no idea what type she is. Says noting on her discharge papers with her blood levels. Thanks for the thread!
 

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
If you donate in Canada they will tell you, in the hospital they won't have it on record until the prep you for surgery or you need a blood transfusion. They have absolutely no reason to actually check until you hit a point where they might need to give it to.
 
Hey von I see you are in Toronto like me! Cool!! FYI there is a new IBD support group. Crohns & Colitis Canada organizes it. There are about 15-20 or so of us so far. If you are interested I can send you the info in PM. We are meeting next I think on the 21st of May.
 

kiny

Well-known member
Since you are a mom, your blood type was measured during your pregnancy, because of rhesus disease. The hospital you gave birth in knows your blood type and rhesus factor.
 

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
Thank you for the offer. I'm having surgery May 7th, so I can say outright I will not be able to attend on the 21st. It's my reconnection surgery as such I won't be going anywhere for at least a month.
Also I'm not really one for physical support groups, too much of a commitment, I really don't like planning things in advance, I'm non-committal to most things. Then there's that whole meeting people thing, they'll want me to actually talk about stuff. I'm happy with this online situation, I come and go as I please, I can take my time replying.
 
Like kiny says - they do check your blood type during pregnancy. I am A- . Because I am rhesus negative, they give the pregnant mother an anti-D injection (some hospitals give one dose and others two). They then test the newborn baby (my daughter is O-).. if she had been rhesus positive.. then I would have required yet another injection.

at the time of pregnancy, I was petrified of needles.. so my husband donated blood and found out that he was O- !! Which makes it impossible for two rhesus negative parents to have a rhesus positive baby. Therefore.. I didnt have the injections :)

I find it so interesting how it all works. Rhesus negative mothers who have rhesus positive babies.. can cause the mother to develop antibodies for rhesus positive blood. Which can then affect future pregnancies. Its not nice at all.. which is why pregnant mothers are tested x
 
I find it so interesting how it all works. Rhesus negative mothers who have rhesus positive babies.. can cause the mother to develop antibodies for rhesus positive blood. Which can then affect future pregnancies. Its not nice at all.. which is why pregnant mothers are tested x
This is what happened to me on my last pregnancy. I had my blood taken after my daughter was born to see if I would need the anti-D injection, but I had already built up the anti-bodies. The doctors think I must have had a silent bleed sometime between 28wks and delivery. Whilst it didn't affect myself or daughter, it will affect any future pregnancies. The complications from this are horrible :( x
 
Oh no smodge :( so sorry to hear that.. was she your 1st child too? It is absolutely crazy that something simple like your blood group could have such complications x
 
Hi bozzylozzy, no she was my second daughter. Think it would have been a whole lot more devastating if she was my first though!! I know, when you decide on having children you would never consider that your blood group would have any affect on your pregnancy :( x
 
It doesn't seem to have anything to do with blood type, those stats are what you would find in a non crohn group of people. Never read that crohn had anything to do with blood type.
My blood type is personal and confidential and Crohns has no relation to blood type. This thread is highly irregular.
Now, looking at this poll you may not conclude that there is any correlation, but I've included the worldwide percentages and taken into account that even though the highest two blood types are A+ and O+, this doesn't mean someone who is either A+ or O+ is more likely to have Crohn's, but rather it is more likely in general to be A+ or O+.

So lets the numbers into perspective. AB- is actually only found is roughly 0.5% of the population. Given that 158 people have filled out the poll, 0.5% of 158 is .79, not even a whole person. However we have 3 here which is obviously higher than 0.5% (it comes out to be 1.9%). But what does that actually mean? It means that if you are AB- you are 380% more likely to have Crohn's than expected. Ok but 3 is such a small sample size, 1 or 2 more votes could effect it in either direction. Well what about O-? 22 people, or 13.92% of the 158 should be enough to get an estimate.

O- accounts for 4.3% of the population, which would be 6.79 people in our 158 member population, far below the 22 people we actually have. Making O- 324% more likely to have Crohn's, and since it is the most common RH Negative blood type, that makes O- most likely to have Crohn's, by a fairly large margin. In fact, in EVERY case, RH- is more likely to have Crohn's than the RH+ counterpart.

You can see in the table I put together (attached below) that RH+ either matches up with the worldwide %, or is under it, meaning if you are RH+ you are actually LESS likely to have Crohn's then we would expect based on blood type distribution. And the opposite with RH- in every case.

For a more visual perspective, take a look at this chart (attached below).

Note that aside from AB+ which is just .6% higher (9 people instead of 8) and so I didn't include it as being significant. I filtered out any numbers that were either 1% or less, higher or lower than baseline. What this chart shows is that the only times the actual Crohn's rate is higher than average is with RH- (notice how much higher O- is than all others), and the only times the actual Crohn's rate is lower than average is with RH+. Those who are B+ are the least likely to have Crohn's.

Now I'll admit that I am not a statistician but rather a programmer so it's possible I've made some mistakes in my math. Feel free to check my work, but I'm confident that I've shown that there is in fact a correlation between RH- and Crohn's, and more specifically that the largest correlation is with O-.
 

Attachments

Top