Ask Dr. D'Adamo: Big D and Little C

Ask Dr. D'Adamo

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Questions of A More Technical Nature

Big D and Little C

QUESTION

I want to try your diet so I asked my doctor about my bloodtype. I had blood type "D" and undergroup "little C". So which of the diets I should follow?

ANSWER

These markers are part of the Rh system (the 'negative/positive' part of how blood type is generally expressed). They will not tell you about your ABO type, which is what the diet is predicated on. Perhaps you should investigate purchasing a home typing test from North American Pharmacal.

The Rh blood group system was discovered independently in 1939 by Philip Levine and R.E. Stetson and in 1940 by Karl Landsteiner and A.S. Weiner. There are 5 antigens in this group: C, D, E, c, e. These antigens occur in complementary pairs with the same name but different case. Complementary antigens never occur in the same person. In other words, if a person has C they won't have c, and vice-versa. No d antigen has ever been found but the notation d is used to denote the absence of D.

The most important is D. The first, and most common one, called Rh1 (also Rho or D). Rh1 causes the most severe immune reaction and is the primary determinant of the Rh trait. All Rh antigens apparently are produced by three sets of closely linked genes that are located near the end of the short arm on chromosome 1.

Although the Rh-negative trait is rare in most parts of the world, it occurs in about 15 percent of Caucasians in Europe, Canada, and the United States. The trait's highest incidence is among the Basques of the Pyrenees (from 25 to 35 percent), and the Berbers of Africa and the Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula (from 18 to 30 percent).

The Ask Dr. D'Adamo internet advice column ran from 1996 to 2009, at which time Dr. D'Adamo's teaching and programming responsibilities no longer allowed him to devote time and resources to directly answering visitor questions. However we've recently reorganized this treasure-trove of material and made it again available to his readership. He occasionally posts new entries. These are marked with a NEW tag.

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