Why Do We Have Different Blood Types?

There are a number of different blood types that a person can have, but what’s the difference between them all?



Read More:
Genes and Blood Type
"Blood is a complex, living tissue that contains many cell types and proteins. A transporter, regulator, and defender, blood courses through the body carrying out many important functions."

Blood Types
"Human blood is grouped into four types: A, B, AB, and O. Each letter refers to a kind of antigen, or protein, on the surface of red blood cells. For example, the surface of red blood cells in Type A blood has antigens known as A-antigens."

How to change your blood type without even trying
"Blood types were once thought to be with people for life. And, in almost every case, they're still thought to be with a person for life. But there is one patient whose blood type actually changed. A liver transplant, apparently, has a shot of changing a person's blood type."
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[cnnske]

Eh, this video explained *what* are blood types, not *why* we have different blood types.

[nicholasrhigh]

Yes I get that we have different blood types and what they are, but you forgot to answer the question asked in the title of your video. WHY do we have different bloodtypes. Is it because of diversity reasons? The more diverse the immune system of a population is, the more resistant it is to disease. Is that the reason? I expected the video to be about this.

[Seeker]

Do any of you have any questions you want us to answer? Let us know! We're about to start answering a bunch more ;)

[funfactsfactory]

Do We Have Different Blood Types?
And what's the updated for? The video is exactly the

[SadeMetsavirta]

I don't know my bIood type, my parents don't even know my bIood type... I just know mosquitoes Iove me over most peopIe

[sulamy]

They removed the part that was completely wrong about the inheritance of the ABO and Rh systems. Good DNews!!

[RNG-]

I'm O- and was born with a 6 1/2foot umbelical cord (spelling might suck) and donated 2 feet of it to 3 babies each. I saved 3 babies from childhood leukemia.

[lilydalbkce]

I was really hoping you would explain the evolutionary reasoning behind having different blood types.

[jsjoren]

Why Do We Have Different  Blood Types???

[mdr]

In the US the most common blood type is gravy.

[GreaterSolomon]

Ok, so the question really wasn't answered

[sanemaniakmind]

That's cool . I'm O but I can't remember if I'm + or -
Oh he looks great without his glasses that magnified his eyes

[zlatkoc]

The Question WHY has not been answered!

[_Negra_Arroyo_Lane]

Lame. You answered WHAT are different blood types, not WHY there are different blood types, as stated in your title.

[FrostyBrewBro]

Could have mentioned what blood types are more frequent among the general population

[mattheweppley]

In South Korea they also believe that blood type affects your personality and Koreans often ask each other, upon initial meeting, what their blood type is. It's really interesting!

[tannerie]

Because of the fact you can give type O blood to anybody, people with such blood are often called universal donors.

Due to this fact, in the show Dark Angel which features a main character who along with others like her had been designed to be soldiers and genetically engineered in a secret facility in a semi apocalyptic near future - all the people like main character had been given blood type O so they could all easily give each other quick and easy blood transfusions if any of them were injured in a combat situation.

Most of the world of the show, while it was pretty chaotic and run down after an EMP had wrecked a lot of the U.S.s infrastructure, was still pretty normal and most people had no idea that characters like the show's main character existed and even those that were aware of them, wouldn't know someone was an enhanced person just by looking at them.

This property of being a universal donor led to a pretty funny/unusual scene in which a character that was close to the main character was badly injured and brought to a hospital and while they gave them a certain amount of treatment, they had no blood, or at least none of the injured characters' blood available and they were in danger of dying, so the main character decided she was going to help the injured character by giving them a blood transfusion, but instead of saying to a doctor or nurse that she was blood type O and could donate to the injured character, she simply waited 'til she was left alone with the injured character and quickly stuck one end of a tube in one of her veins and the other end in one of the injured character and started transfusing to them :) .

Of course when one of the hospital staff came back into the room and saw what she was doing they were shocked and said, "What are you doing?! - You could kill them!", to which she said, "I'm a universal donor." :) .

[MaronaNunya]

Very informative, love it! Also pretty funny is I always used to joke about having A+ blood when I was a little kid... because as I put it "vampires like it better" [the dracula/BTVS/Anne Rice varieties] and then when I was about 16 years old I found out I actually do have A+ as my type and I nearly died laughing. A decade of kidding around and it turned out to be true! xD

[robinblankenship]

Extremely well done. Very crisp and clear and highly useful.

[bmerio]

How about talking about the bunk that is the Blood Type Diet?