Do you know that India presently witnesses nearly two million heart attacks annually? A heart attack can cause permanent damage to your heart and can even cause death, due to lack of oxygen-rich blood. As per the reports, heart attack kills one person in every 33 seconds in our country, which is quite an alarming state. There have been several reasons behind the paradigm shift in the age groups suffering from heart attacks to younger age brackets. A heart attack can be triggered by many factors like poor diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyle, etc.
Lifestyle contributes largely to a majority of cardiovascular diseases. But a shocking revelation through an international study conducted earlier this year says that people with A, B and AB blood types are at higher risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular anomalies. The people with blood group O types are at comparatively lesser risk. The study presented at European Society of Cardiology, which involved 1.3 million respondents, also said that all people living with 'non-O blood groups' are at nine percent higher risk of cardiovascular events (and heart attacks in particular), and also have a shorter life expectancy, says Dr Bharat Kukreti, Senior Consultant Cardiology, Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon.
The research was conducted on 7,71,113 people with non-O type blood group and 519,743 people with O type blood group in analysis of coronary disorders. Among the people with non-O type blood group, 1.5 per cent showed a coronary event as compared to 1.4 per cent with the O blood group. Likewise, for combined cardiovascular events, the risk associated with non-O groups was relatively higher.
The findings from the study clearly indicate that blood group should be seen as an important risk assessment factor for prevention of heart health issues, besides age, sex, weight, systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, the reasons of association between heart attacks and blood group remain unclear till date, but highly speculated. Individuals with non o-type blood group have 25% more von-will brand factor (an important blood constituent that leads to clotting). It has also been found by some researchers in the past that people with A, B and AB blood have higher levels of a blood-clotting protein, and resultantly, higher concentration of cholesterol.
Based on these findings, authors recommended considering use of ABO blood group in risk assessment program of heart attack. But that doesn't mean people with blood type O should not be concerned at all. Heart disease risk and life span are influenced by various other factors, and the well-known factors affecting likelihood of getting heart attacks are diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, stress (apart from age, male sex and family). Belonging to a non-O blood type represents only a risk factor (among many others), and actually, there are millions of people worldwide with non-O blood type that do not have, and will never develop, any of these diseases. Thus, in my opinion, a healthy lifestyle still remains the main factor able to influence the heart health status of an individual.
(With ANI Inputs)
