The blood group as determinant of endurance in running a comparison between sedentary blood group O and non-blood group O individuals

Abstract

Background: Beyond their traditional relevance (blood transfusion and organ transplants), recent data has shown that blood groups have a role to play in endurance during physical activity.
Objective: To determine the influences of blood groups and muscle fibre types on endurance.
Design: An experimental design, specifically an ex post facto design with a cohort of healthy male participants.
Setting: The research was community based.
Subjects: Avolunteer sample of 50 male participants from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences was studied. Participants were between the ages of 20-25 years with a physical activity level of less than 4000 MET/minutes/week.Participants with a history of cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and/or were taking any pharmaceutical drug were excluded.
Main Outcome Measures: An association between blood group, muscle fibre type and endurance during exercise in sedentary individuals.
Results: Mean age was 21.1±1.1 years. The mean height and weight were 173.88±5.80cm and 67.09±8.63kg respectively. Blood group O participants covered significantly more distance 2.45±1.03 km compared to 1.86±0.52 km covered by non-O blood group participants (*p=0.016) and spent more time on the treadmill 22.30±5.75 minutes compared to 18.03±4.01 minutes covered by the Non-O individuals (*p=0.004). There was a statistically significant association between muscle fibre composition and blood group category (*p=0.002). Most blood O participants (73%) had dominant type I muscle fibres.
Conclusion: There is an association between the blood group and endurance. Sedentary blood group O individuals have better endurance compared to sedentary Non-O individuals. Participants with dominant type I muscles have better endurance. Agreater proportion of blood group O participants had dominant type I muscle fibres.