Blood type and Stuff

I randomly look into things (thank you Wikipedia!) for no particular reason. Yesterday, I looked into blood types.

So, if anyone is curious here is a little bit of info about blood types.

Most people know that O- is the universal donor....and some people know that AB is the universal taker...but here is the complete breakdown.

A can give to other A's and AB's
B can give to other B's and AB's
O can give to A,B, AB, and other O's

If there is a negative after the letter it can give to any compatible blood type, but if there is a positive after the letter it can only give to other positives of a compatible blood type.

The reason (not that I'm all that hot at biology) is 'cause A blood has an A antigen, but antibodies against the B antigen. B has the B antigen, but antibodies against the A antigen....and so on (I think you see the pattern. AB has both A and B antigens and no antibodies for either so it can take any blood type (but AB is preferred). O blood (also called zero blood) has no antigens so any type can take it, and it has anti-A and anti-B antibodies....so everything's kosher).

The positive and negative following the letter is whether there is the D antigen protein on the red blood cell. If someone has none of the Rh D protein they get a negative, if they do, they get a positive.

The positive requires another positive to be compatible (as was mentioned earlier), but the negative has nothing to get in the way (no D antigen) so the negative is cool for everyone.

This is why O negative is the blood of true Christians...willing to give to everyone and all that.

(Oh, and for plasma donating everything is the opposite....so 0 is the universal taker and AB is the universal plasma donor (this was totally new to me, and I was glad that AB blood wasn't a total jerk...and I'm glad O blood got a break from donating to everyone))

Okay, so other than describing antigen sensitivity on the red blood cells is there anything interesting about this?

Well I'm glad you asked! The answer is either "Yes!" or "Sorta!"

One thing I found interesting was the connection some cultures make between between blood type and personality; this is most common in Asian cultures.

There was a Japanese scientist named Furukawa (in 1927 I think ) who was one of the first to get onto the ABO blood bandwagon, and he theorized that blood type had something to do with personality. He felt this way cause there was a group of people that were quite fractious (Taiwanese) and the vast majority of that group had 0 blood (so 0 blood is the renegade blood....it is compatible with whatever it wants and it won't let you say different).

Anyway, this is often why video games include blood type in the character profile ('cause Asian video game makers thinks it gives insight into the character's character).

Science has debunked this idea, but it has continued on much the way horoscopes have. There is even a Korean romantic comedy called "My Boyfriend is Type B." Good times.

Anyway, now you know that you can judge people by blood type (actually the Germans tried to do this to determine an Aryan blood type that was better than everyone else's ...but I don't think they found enough consistency to run with the idea. However, many other groups have found ways to use blood type to reinforce racist tendencies. This is effective because blood type tends to remain consistent in a geographic region (since it's inherited from parents)).

So, if you're curious, here's the breakdown.

In the U.S.:
A+: 28.27%
B+: 20.59 %
AB+: 5.06 %
O+: 36.44%
A-: 3.52 %
B-: 1.39%
AB-: 0.45%
O-: 4.33%

So, having A+ blood makes me thoroughly unremarkable. But, if there is some correlation between blood type and personality/characteristics then I'm gonna say from personal experience that there's a correlation between blood type and academic performance (huzzah! my A+ brethren).

Anyway, ask your friends their blood type, and when they say it to you, make sure you ask them "are you positive?" .....'cause that joke never gets old.

Also, if you're in a relationship then you better ask your significant other their blood type...then refer to this book:

Toshitaka Nomi and Alexander Besher, You Are Your Blood Type: the biochemical key to unlocking the secrets of your personality

Alright, I better go. I hope you all have a bloody good day.

(sorry if you're British, I realize that to you I just swore)