Know your ABOs: What does your blood type say about your health?

Knowing your blood type could open up a whole world of valuable new information about your personal health profile

Researchers have investigated blood types as a risk factor for conditions ranging from heart disease to dementia and even susceptibility to ill winter vomiting virus.

Could your blood group determine your health? Researchers at the University of Maryland recently reported in the journal, Neurology, that young adults who suffered early strokes were more likely to have blood type A and less likely to have blood type O. Other researchers have investigated blood types as a risk factor for conditions ranging from heart disease to dementia and even susceptibility to ill winter vomiting virus. Yet despite its importance, many Irish people don’t know their blood type as doctors and hospitals do not routinely check it.

Paul McKinney, operations director at the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, says the organisation has run campaigns with the hashtag #MissingType to raise awareness of the importance of knowing your blood group.