RH Negative Blood Type and B12 Deficiency

[MoKayD]

This study ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... seems to say individuals with Rh negative blood types are more likely to have vitamin B deficiencies. Read the paragraph under Table 1. I have negative blood type. I wonder how many members on this site also have negative blood types.

[jade_s]

Personally I'm always skeptical of any research related to blood types because it has been abused to death.

At first glance this also seems to fit the "If you torture the data long enough, it'll confess to anything".

Do you mean Table 2?

The numbers do indeed look compelling but I think it's just a side effect of having too few participants. It's easy to simulate statistically - you can see that when you have too few data points, you're more likely to find significant differences. Of course it might very well be the case, but you'd need a better controlled study with more people, not to mention having to separate out the various causes like ppi/metformim use, hpylori, surgery, PA, genetic, etc.

I also wondered whether autoimmune diseases are more prevalent in Rh - people or by blood type. I did a quick search and the studies I found all suffer from the same problem - too little data and not replicated.

My money is on genetics, for PA in particular and autoimmune in general, rather than just blood type.

I'm a "+" .

p.s. Sorry if i sounded harsh. I'm skeptical by nature & training. I do however find these topics fascinating! Thanks for sharing

[MoKayD in reply to jade_s]

No, you weren't too harsh I appreciate your honest analysis. I don't have a scientific background and I rely on members here to explain studies I find online. I've always been intrigued by my negative blood type and when I see something like this I am compelled to look at it.

[MoKayD in reply to jade_s]

I am wondering how many participants would be considered a good number for a more accurate analysis? Also, Does the fact they were self reporting cause problems with the data?

[jade_s in reply to MoKayD]

OK glad to hear, I can be blunt sometimes . I look forward to hearing what others say too, as I could be way off since blood disorders are not my speciality.

Good question about the number of participants and the self reporting.

For the number, I leave that up to the statisticians but I guess more than 29 like in this study (those self-reported to have B12D)... And just as important to have enough in whatever categories of B12D you're studying. So if you have only 5 people with PA, that won't say much. But say 200 with h-pylori or 1000 from ppi/metforming use, then you could start to make more reasonable statistics. There are ways to make sample size estimates from pilot data, so perhaps this study could be useful for that purpose.

For the self-reporting, yes that point can be very tricky. I do know that in other research areas, crowdsourcing can be an effective way to gather data. But in this case, I guess you'd want to measure blood levels and know the cause of the deficiency and so on.

[deniseinmilden in reply to jade_s]

I too am interested/fascinated... And sceptical! I agree with everything you said.

[Beginner2]

I have Rh negative blood.

I also have MGUS, a blood variant [many people have it] which my (now new super) GP carefully explained to me, only causes trouble 6% of the time. She had me tested anway. But I wonder if it has any connection. [Too tired to check at the moment]

[still_elsewhere in reply to Beginner2]

Beginner2, is there any chance you’re from the U.S.? If so, did your insurance cover the MGUS test? My mom had multiple myeloma and now, with my PA diagnosis, I’m curious about a test…

[Beginner2 in reply to still_elsewhere]

Sorry I'm not from the U.S. I wasn't tested for MGUS - it just appeared on the end of a list of what I had wrong.

[deniseinmilden]

Interesting, thank you.

Rh B-ve

Need to SI daily.

[EiCa]

Funny you should bring this up. I have type ABnegative blood. It is estimated that only 1-3% of the population have this blood type. I have been sick since birth and always seem to be in the bottom 1% of incidence of various conditions.

[Timetraveler67]

I just wanted to say about blood groups that hardly anyone I know has a clue what blood type they are. I’m in the uk and I don’t think Drs put it on your notes or even tell you, I wonder if anyone knows why this is? I remember my mother telling me once that her auntie was not allowed to marry someone unless they both had a blood test done I wonder if this still goes on in some parts of the world

[MoKayD in reply to Timetraveler67]

I'm not sure how common it is here in the US. I know because both of my parent's were negative and my mother told me that was a good thing because if one partner is positive it can cause the mother to lose any child she may be carrying. My husband is positive and after my one and only pregnancy I was given a shot of something that would negate the problem for carrying future pregnancies.

[B12life]

I am positively positive.

[MoKayD in reply to B12life]

Ha ha