A stroke is an emergency medical situation. Blood flow to the brain was interrupted by either a blood clot, or bleeding. This causes oxygen-starved cells in the brain to begin dying, which can lead to long-term disability and death.
Recent research suggests that people with certain blood type may be at a greater or lesser risk of having a stroke prior to the age of sixty.
What is early-onset stroke?
Strokes are common among older adults, but can occur at any age. Early-onset stroke is a stroke which occurs before 60 years of age. It’s less common, but it can be more severe.
Early-onset strokes can have different causes than strokes in older adults. It is important to identify these causes for the development of effective treatments and prevention measures.
Blood Types and Stroke Rate
The presence of antigen proteins at the surface of the red blood cells determines the type of blood. There are four main blood types: A B AB and O.
The combination of genes that you inherit from your parents determines the blood type.
Recent studies have found that certain blood types are associated with an increased risk or reduced risk of strokes early in their development.
The Risk of Strokes Early Onset
According to a recent study published in the Journal Neurology, those with blood types B and A may be at a greater risk of having an early-onset brain stroke. The study examined genome-wide associations studies of early-onsetstroke in over 16,000 stroke cases and 599,00 non-stroke controls.
Researchers found that blood type A and B are associated with a higher risk of thromboembolic strokes, which is a stroke caused by blood clots. Blood type A and B people had up to 1,56 times more chances of having a stroke than those with blood type O.
The risk of strokes with early onset was reduced in people with blood type O. The findings are in line with those of previous studies which found that blood type O has a lower risk for thromboembolic issues and other health problems compared to blood types A orB.
What can you do to reduce your risk?
Although you cannot change your blood type these new insights could indicate that some individuals need to be closely monitored and screened more for cardiovascular disease.
You can also reduce your stroke risk by doing a few other things. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the most important thing you can do.
- exercising regularly
- eating a healthy diet
- Avoiding tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption
- managing high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Speak to your doctor to learn about stroke risk factors and other conditions. Discuss what you can do in order to improve your overall health and decrease the likelihood of a life-threatening disease.