Posted by alexandra_k on September 6, 2013, at 19:55:35
In reply to Re: Blood Type association » Phillipa, posted by jane d on September 6, 2013, at 17:46:38
Though OO does turn out to be the most frequent blood type.
This is the first time I've heard of mental disorder possibly being linked to alleles that code for blood type...
But this is a new area for me... I had a look... There was some stuff that found a link (fairly small sample size, seemed to me). A while ago. In the 70's. Then one study failed to find a link (and those are hard to get published). Nothing I could see on this recently. If there was a link I think we would be hearing about it a lot because that would be a significant discovery indeed. But maybe I'm missing something.
Best I can figure... The main current line is looking at what severe mental disorders might have genetically in common rather than considering bi-polar distinct from depression distinct from schizophrenia. Focus is on 5 alleles. Or 5 locations for alleles. Or something. This is a new area for me.
Sickle-cell anemia has been very inspiring. It turns out that there is an allele such that when individuals have the recessive form (two of them) they have sickle-cell anemia (which is bad). But when they have only one of them (heterozygote form) they have an advantage by having some sickle-cells which are resistant to maleria but not so many sickle-cells to result in them clotting up the capillaries. Or something like this.
So... Harmful genes can be tolerated as part of a trade-off. And mental illness could be the result of recessive genes... But I'd be surprised if they turned out to be significantly linked to the ones that code for blood type... Though stranger things have happened...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1050240
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130828/msgs/1050262.html