One Blood Type Appears to Carry a Higher Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
People with blood type B may need to be a little more careful than their peers about lifestyle factors associated with the disease. diabetes risk.
According to a 2024 umbrella reviewPeople with blood type B (positive or negative) had a slightly higher risk of developing the disease type 2 diabetes For people with non-B blood type.
How high? The average is around 28 percent. This isn’t huge, but it could be significant enough to tip the scales if other risk factors are also involved.
“Numerous systematic reviews have been published with meta-analyses investigating correlations between ABO and Rhesus blood groups and various health outcomes.
“But to date, the relationship between these blood groups and human health outcomes remains controversial.” wrote a team It is led by epidemiologist Fang-Hua Liu of Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University.
“The current umbrella review included 51 systematic reviews. meta-analysis Articles containing 270 associations.
“We recalculated every relationship and found only one [instance of] “Convincing evidence for the association between blood type B and the risk of type 2 diabetes compared with non-B blood type.”
Human blood is classified as follows: eight main groups It relies on the sugars and proteins, or lack thereof, found on the surface of your red blood cells.
Types A, B and AB are based on the presence of antigens (sugar molecules) that can trigger an immune response. There is no A or B antigen in O-type blood. Meanwhile, Rhesus (Rh) factors are proteins that determine blood compatibility and give your blood the name positive or negative.
Previous studies have suggested that these subtle differences in our blood cells may be linked to: Increased susceptibility to some diseases.
Liu and his colleagues began their study to systematically evaluate links between blood type and disease through a catalog of nearly 270 different health outcomes.
A. systematic review It is a study in which published articles on a specific subject are examined and their results are analyzed collectively. One umbrella review Compiles systematic reviews; a kind of giant synthesis that provides a broader overview.
Think of individual works like trees; While a systematic review is like standing outside a grove, an umbrella review is like flying a drone over an entire forest.
“We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and several regional databases from inception to February 16, 2024 to identify systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies assessing associations between ABO as well as Rh blood groups and various health outcomes.” researchers explained.
To sort through 270 reported links between blood type and disease, researchers subjected each to a series of statistical stress tests designed to weed out weak or unreliable findings.
They examined the strength of the evidence, whether the results were consistent across different studies, and whether the data sets were large enough to be reliable. They also checked for signs of bias, such as small studies that exaggerate effects or an unusually high number of positive results.
More importantly, they asked whether each relationship would survive if tested again in future research. Most associations did not pass these checks.
In the end, a single link between blood type B and type 2 diabetes met the highest standard of evidence.
This suggests that the link is real, albeit relatively small: only 28 percent higher than the current baseline. This is much smaller than the risk associated with diet, weight or lifestyle.
For example, just 50 grams of processed meat a day increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. by 37 percent. A sedentary lifestyle may increase risk by 112 percent. Being overweight is one of them. strongest known risk factors.
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Researchers also did not examine what might trigger this increased risk. A study conducted in 2025 shows that: gut microbiome may be involved; however, more research is needed.
The results show a real and concrete relationship between blood type and type 2 diabetes; This relationship may also take into account how people think about their risk.
More broadly, the study highlights weaknesses in existing research that better designed investigations could address, and suggests that more rigorous studies are still needed to understand how blood type is related to disease.
The research was published on: BMC Medicine.
