The challenges with being Blood Type A and having breast cancer:
People who have breast cancer and who are also Blood Type A have a few extra challenges than people with cancer who are blood type O, B or AB. Blood Type A women with breast cancer tend to have a more rapid progression and poorer outcomes with cancer. Blood Type AB people also have poorer outcomes because they also carry the Blood Type A antigen.
Determining your Blood Type and eating foods specifically beneficial for your Blood Type will take you quite far when preventing and treating disease, but there is about 10% of the population that are more challenging to treat as some pieces to the health puzzle just aren’t obvious. For these people we need to get some additional details and data so that we can modify their treatment protocols.
Some of that data includes secretor status and determining the presence of M and N antibodies. The presence or absence of these factors allow us to manipulate the body with therapies and food lectins to help it heal.
Secretor Status: Secretor status is determined using a spit test. The saliva is evaluated by a lab to determine if you secrete your blood type antibodies into, perspiration, semen (in men) or in this case saliva. About 85% of the human population are secretors.
Non-secretors often have additional health challenges. Non-secretor status has been correlated to higher rates of rheumatic heart disease and alcoholism. By knowing your secretor status we can make some dietary changes to help manage your symptoms and optimize health.
MN Antibodies also play a role in cancer and in cardiovascular disease of the Blood Type A individual. Each parent has a set of M or N genes, so their offspring can be MM (28% of the population), NN (22% of the population) or MN (50% of the population).
Most health problems are associated with MM and NN genes. Those with the MN antibody are considered to be hybrid and more resistant to disease. There is a higher incidence of breast cancer in Blood Type A women with MM genes whereas people with NN genes have a stronger chance of getting their blood vessels plugged up with triglycerides and cholesterol because they can’t process their food as quickly as MN or MM types.
A1 or A2 status: Blood Type A people also can be sub-typed into A1 or A2 status. What this means is that if you are Type A1 your body’s cells react more severely to some lectins coming into your system. This will create health problems at an accelerated rate.
Rhesus or Rh Factors: This is a separate blood test important for pregnant women. If the baby they are carrying is the opposite Rhesus factor, the mom’s body can attack the baby’s blood and kill the fetus, cause a miscarriage or even kill the mother. This situation only occurs after the body has been sensitized to the Rhesus antigen by the mixing of blood during that first pregnancy. It doesn’t really have anything to do with lectins or eating for blood type or treating cancer, but people seem to think it’s important.
Now let’s discuss lectins and breast cancer.
A lectin is a compound, usually a protein found in nature, that binds to specific sugar molecules on cancer or red blood cells causing them to clump or agglutinate. Lectins are found in the foods that we eat and often are blood type specific. Some food lectins are attracted to cancer cells and can be used in the treatment of cancer and inflammation. We’ll talk more about them below.
Lectins in food can also cause microbial overgrowth, destroy the intestinal villi (leading to gluten allergies and celiac disease), cause allergic reactions, entice Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), mimic insulin, increase gut permeability (leaky gut syndrome), cause inflammation and dysplasia.
Lectins are blood group specific. What this means is that the foods that one blood type can eat, another doesn’t tolerate. For instance Blood type O people can’t tolerate and should avoid eating wheat, corn, dairy, chocolate and coffee whereas Blood Type A people can tolerate corn, coffee and chocolate. Lectins can be attracted to specific body parts and cause disease by clumping cells. For instance many people are allergic to wheat and gluten. The gluten lectin sticks to the little villi within the small intestine causing allergies, malabsorption and diarrhea.
