QUESTION: Great results from following the "O" diet. Ulcers are better, weight is down, and I'm feeling 20 years younger! Is there anything I can take when the ulcer pops up every now and again? Thanks for a great book and website!

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ANSWER: It's a known medical fact that type O's get more peptic ulcer disease than the other blood types. This was traditionally thought due to an overproduction of stomach acid (a phenomena linked to type O since the 1950's), excess proteolytic enzyme secretions (known since the 1960's).

A few years ago, it was observed that many chronic ulcer patients had elevated levels of antibodies to the bacteria H. pylorri, and when cultured, their stomachs yielded very high levels of this organism. This shed new light on the link between type O and ulcers, as H. pylorri possesses a lectin specific for the sugar fucose, also the group O antigen. Thus it appears that H.pylori is 'stuck on' group O -literally.

A new study (1) seems to imply that type O has a higher level of inflammation secondary to H. pylori infection. This should not be a surprise, as I wrote in ER4YT that almost all inflammatory diseases show an increase of O over other blood groups. Thus not only are type O more likely to have the bacteria in their stomach, they are more likely to have inflammation from it.

This may explain why many people are improved by taking ginger juice or supplements for stomach ulcers. Although ginger's many pungent oils are anti-bacterial, one of the herbs more unheralded functions is that of COx2 inhibition, making it act as a very potent anti-inflammatory.



1. Alkout AM, Blackwell CC, Weir DM. Increased inflammatory responses of persons of blood group O to Helicobacter pylori.J Infect Dis 2000 Apr;181(4):1364-9

QUESTION:

I'm A+ with a rather severe case of herpes (genital). I get outbreaks about twice a month. Your book was recommended by my N.D. to help boost my immune system in general. However, I've noticed that many of the foods that supposedly aggravate the herpes virus are on the beneficial list for type A's--nuts, corn, and other food containing arginine. Should I modify your recommended diet for type A's and avoid these foods, too? Or should I try following the recommended diet for type A's and hope that in doing so it will strengthen my immune system and help keep the herpes at bay? My concern is if I eliminate nuts and seeds it could be difficult for me to get enough protein. I would prefer to remain anonymous. Thank you.

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ANSWER:

Many of the so-called "herpes aggravating"

(i. e arginine containing) foods seem to me like the least thing I would want to avoid if I had the condition. Whereas I do agree that increasing the amino acid lysine in the diet can benefit herpes sufferers, the rationale of avoiding arginine (as it supposedly competes with lysine) is less convincing. Arginine is intimately involved with the effectivenss of the body's anti-viral T helper cells, through its role in mediating nitrous oxide, a particularly valuable component of the immune system known to be defficient in herpes and other chronic viral conditions. So, I'd not worry too much about the arginine in the A diet, but I would endeavor to increase the levels of lysine.

What else can be done?

Licorice phytogel. I principally use a licorice gel as a topical antiviral agent when the lesions are active. One company that markets this is Madison Botanicals in Seattle WA, but your ND probably has some on the shelf in their office. Applying this gel 5-6 times daily when the infection is active has been shown to inactivate the RNA (genetic material) of the herpes virus. Since the virus must travel from the nerve endings inside the body to the skin to reproduce, inactivating the virus at the skin means that with continued use over several active occurences, the level of virus in the nerve endings drop and eventually go beneath the threshold necessary to trigger an attack.

Increase cAMP. Cyclic AMP is a nucleotide with anti-herpetic activity. The Ayurvedic herb Coleus forskolin has been shown to increase cAMP. So health food store carry it.

QUESTION: What can I do, I have Primary Biliary Cirrhosis? You are the first person I have seen who mentions that there is treatment and hope for it. I am type A and am switching to the diet you recommend, What else?

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ANSWER: Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a disease characterized by inflammatory destruction of the small bile ducts within the liver. PBC eventually leads to cirrhosis of the liver. The cause of PBC is unknown, but because of the presence of autoantibodies, it is generally thought to be an autoimmune disease. Other etiologies, such as infectious agents, have not been completely excluded. PBC has a worldwide prevalence of approximately 5/100,000 and an annual incidence of approximately 6/1,000,000. The prevalence and incidence appear to be similar in different regions of the world. About 90% of patients with PBC are women. Most commonly, the disease is diagnosed in patients between the ages of 40 and 60 years.

Most patients with PBC present with pruritus (itching). After pruritus, jaundice (yellow skin caused by bilirubin retention) is the most common presenting symptom. Several patients also present with complaints related to chronic portal hypertension (increased blood pressure in the veins that go to the liver that can lead to symptoms such as bleeding in the esophagus or fluid retention in the abdomen). Some patients are discovered to have PBC during workup of another illness. Since the widespread use of routine serum biochemical analysis, many patients present for evaluation of an elevated serum alkaline phosphatase activity that was detected on laboratory examination.

Patients with PBC have abnormalities in several blood tests. In essentially all patients, the serum alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase activities are markedly elevated (these are enzymes present in the bile ducts). Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities are usually moderately elevated (these are enzymes made by hepatocytes, the predominant liver cell type).

My suggestions

Low protein diet. This may be moot, since most people with PBC are blood group A, so what I am really saying is follow the type A diet.

Fat soluable vitamins. Fat absorption becomes compromised with PBC, so adequate supplementation with vitamins A, E, K and D is important.

Liver-specific antioxidants. Milk Thistle, the Ayurvedic herb Eclipta alba, Lipoic acid, can help minimize free-radical damage to the bile ducts.

Vitamin C and bioflavanoids. The water soluable antioxidants can help matian the elasticity of the veins, which are often de-natured by the excessive high portal pressure due to the congestion of the liver.

PBC is a progressive disease, but with good diet and rational supplementation you can control it effectively -hopefully until better allopathic treatment is available.

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QUESTION: I have just started following the type-O diet and am feeling better. Thank-you. In LR4YT you limit fruits and vegetables much more than in ER4YT, listing the same allowances "weekly" instead of "daily". Why? Is this a typographical error? Thanks,

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ANSWER: There are a small number of errata in the first edition of LR4YT. With a work of this size and depth, it is perhaps inevitable that a few typographic or editorial omissions will occur. We are currently collecting them, which can be viewed here.

QUESTION:

I am a practicing nutritionist in France and have been recommending your system to my patients as soon as I discovered it. Bravo! Walnut oil is quite popular here in the health and good eating circles. According to you who is it good for?

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ANSWER:

Walnut oil is neutral for types O and B, beneficial for types A and AB.

In ancient times the walnut oil was prized as a drying oil for paint, and Michaelangelo even used it to paint the Sistine Chapel in Rome! The French prize walnut oil as the very best oil for salads and cuisine. Today you will find walnut oils produced here in California which rival the best of the world. Check out suppliers on the net if you are looking for sources. You can find California produced walnut oils in your supermarket shelf and also gourmet shops.

Walnut oil is a source of linoleic and linolenic acids. Walnuts contain about 70% oil which is primarily polyunsaturated and rich in essential fatty acids essential to health. Walnuts are also one of the best plant sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. Walnuts are one of the rare nuts which can inhibit the enzyme onithene decarboxlase (ODC). ODC is responsible for generation of polyamines (ubiquitous growth factors often produced in circumstances of toxicity) outside of the colon. Green tea's anti-cancer properties stem from its abilities to block polyamine production as well.

Although walnuts have not as yet been the subject of intense genetic manipulation, there is recent interest in the generation of walnuts engineered with rice bacterial blight resistance gene, so as always, I recommend purchasing from certified sources free of genetic modification.

Average composition in fatty acids
Oleic acid	14 to 21 %
Linoleic acid	54 to 65 %
Palmitic acid	6 to 8 %
Stearic acid	1 to 3 %

QUESTION: Pursuant to you answer regarding the anthropology sources you've used to build your theory, a naturopath on another website, attacks your sources, specifically Mourant. He argues that he "has read some bad anthropology, but this was especially bad." What is your response? PS: lost 25 pounds on O diet since January, so I could care less about whether this doctor disagrees with you or not. Keep up the good work!

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ANSWER: First understand that this gentleman is a proponent of his own way of eating, so he is not impartial. Since the recommended blood type diets sometimes recommend high protein, he has a problem with that. Personally I find his opinion of Mourant disturbing.

You decide:

Mourant, Dr. A.E. MA, D Phil, DM, MRCP

Serological Population Genetics Lab, St. Bartholomews, Fellow 1957, 1977

Director, Serological Population Genetics Laboratory.

Medical Officer, Galton Lab, Serum Unit, Cambridge 1945-46;

Director, Blood Group Reference Lab, Ministry of Health and MRC 1946-65;

Honorary. Senior Lecturer in Haematology, St. Bartholomews Hosp. Med. Coll. 1965-77

Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, Chelsea Bridge Rd. 1957;

Society for Study of Human Biology (Vice President 1960-63);

Human Biology Council 1987

Publications:

1954 The Distribution of Human Blood Groups

1958 The ABO Blood Groups, Comprehensive Tables and Maps of World Distribution

1959 "Human blood groups and natural selection", Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, v. 24, p. 57

1963 Man and Cattle. (ed. jointly)

1978 Blood Groups and Diseases

1983 Blood Relations: Blood Groups and Anthropology



All of Mourant's works were published through Oxford Unversity or Cambridge University Press. I have no link to Mourant, other than that he is a reference source of mine, but to question his pedigree is just silly.

QUESTION:

Dr. D'Adamo, I own a small health food store and have a customer who is reading your book. She is type O and was interested in your section on 'bladder wrack' on page 90. You list your source for bladder wrack as 'Fucus vesiculosus' and although we carry several different brands of kelp in the store, they are either 'Laminaria spp' or 'Ascophyllum nodosum'. Can either of these be used with the desired results, or do I need to find the source listed in your book?

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ANSWER:

Bladderwrack is an excellent nutrient for type Os. However, there are many kelps which are referred to as "bladderwrack. Only Fucus vesiculosis will do the trick. The critical sugar fucose, which is found in Fucus seems to help normalize the sluggish metabolic rate and produce weight loss.

In addition to fucose, Fucus vesiculosus contains a wide spectrum of polysaccharides including fucoidans (containing mainly fucose and sulfate) and fucans (composed of neutral sugars with a high content of uronic acids), as well as glucosamine. Fucus vesiculosus also has a lectin or lectin-like compound.

In addition to its effects on metabolism (largely through modulating the effects of the immune system on the the thyroid gland) Fucus has the following additional actions::

Anticoagulant Activity: Results indicate the fucoidan fraction posseses anticoagulant activity,1 and fibrinolytic properties. (1,2) Antimetastatic and Antitumor Activity: In vitro, fucoidan is a potent inhibitor of tumor cell invasion, acting to block tumor cell adhesion. (3) Immunomodulating Activity: Fucoidan stimulates immunoreactions of the humoral and cellular types, (4) enhances the phagocytosis of macrophages, (5) and suppresses eosinophil recruitment to sites of allergic inflammation. (6) Antimicrobial Activity: Fucoidan inhibits the growth of gram negative and positive organisms, (7) and a variety of viruses. (8) The lectin extracted from Fucus vesiculosus agglutinates Candida guilliermondii and C. krusei, (9) and has a toxic effect on some strains of E.coli and all strains tested of Neisseria meningitidis. (10) Evidence indicates that fucose containing carbohydrates can inhibit adhesion of Helicobacter pylori.

(11) Fucoidan has anti-adhesion activity against Plasmodium falciparum (the malaria parasite) and is capable of inhibiting sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes and merozoite reinvasion of erythrocytes. (12) Inflammatory recruitment of leukocytes into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during bacterial meningitis has been shown to contribute to neurological damage. Fucoidin treatment dramatically reduces the accumulation of both leukocytes and plasma protein in the CSF of rabbits with bacterial meningitis. (13)

It is available from the shopping mall on this website. As a retailer, you may want to contact North American direct set up an account to purchase bladderwrack direct from them.

References

1. Rozkin MIa, Levina MN, Efimov VS, Usov AI. Comparative study of the anticoagulant activity of sulfated polysaccharides from marine brown algae. Farmakol Toksikol 1988;51:63-68. [Article in Russian]

2. Durig J, Bruhn T, Zurborn KH, et al. Anticoagulant fucoidan fractions from Fucus vesiculosus induce platelet activation in vitro. Thromb Res 1997;85:479-491.

3. Soeda S, Ishida S, Shimeno H, Nagamatsu A. Inhibitory effect of oversulfated fucoidan on invasion through reconstituted basement membrane by murine Lewis lung carcinoma. Jpn J Cancer Res 1994;85:1144-1150.

4. Zapopozhets TS, Besednova NN, Loenko IuN. Antibacterial and immunomodulating activity of fucoidan. Antibiot Khimioter 1995;40:9-13. [Article in Russian]

5. Itoh H, Noda H, Amano H, et al. Antitumor activity and immunological properties of marine algal polysaccharides, especially fucoidan, prepared from Sargassum thunbergii of Phaeophyceae. Anticancer Res 1993;13:2045-2052.

6. Teixeira MM, Hellewell PG. The effect of the selectin binding polysaccharide fucoidin on eosinophil recruitment in vivo. Br J Pharmacol 1997;120:1059-1066.

7. Zapopozhets TS, Besednova NN, Loenko IuN. Antibacterial and immunomodulating activity of fucoidan. Antibiot Khimioter 1995;40:9-13. [Article in Russian]

8. Baba M, Snoeck R, Pauwels R, de Clercq E. Sulfated polysaccharides are potent and selective inhibitors of various enveloped viruses, including herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, and human immunodeficiency virus. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1988;32:1742-1745.

9. Criado MT, Ferreiros CM. Selective interaction of a Fucus vesiculosus lectin-like mucopolysaccharide with several Candida species. Ann Microbiol (Paris) 1983;134A:149-154.

10. Criado MT, Ferreiros CM. Toxicity of an algal mucopolysaccharide for Escherichia coli and Neisseria meningitidis strains. Rev Esp Fisiol 1984;40:227-230.

11. Stromqvist M, Falk P, Bergstrom S, et al. Human milk kappa-casein and inhibition of Helicobacter pylori adhesion to human gastric mucosa. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 1995;21:288-296.

12. Rowe A, Berendt AR, Marsh K, Newbold CI. Plasmodium falciparum: a family of sulphated glycoconjugates disrupts erythrocyte rosettes. Exp Parasitol 1994;79:506-516.

13. Granert C, Raud J, Xie X, et al. Inhibition of leukocyte rolling with polysaccharide fucoidin prevents pleocytosis in experimental meningitis in the rabbit. J Clin Invest 1994;93:929-936.

QUESTION: I was in the military in the 1960's and was typed as an O. While showing my wife how to do the home typing test, I retyped myself and found that I was actually blood type A. At first I thought the kit was inaccurate, but when my doctor retyped me again I was indeed found to be type A. The though that I could have been killed or otherwise injured by an incorrect transfusion is chilling. How often have you seen people innacurately typed in the military?

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ANSWER: First, look on the bright side. They typed you as type O, so at least if you had needed blood you would have been given O, which is the universal donor type and would have worked fine.

But how accurate are the standard military blood typing results?

A recent study showed that thirty-four of 923 soldiers (3.7%) demonstrated at least one discrepancy during testing. Of these 34 discrepancies, 22 (2.3%) involved ABO group errors, 10 (1.1%) involved Rh type errors, and 2 (0. 2%) involved both ABO group and Rh type errors. These errors could lead to transfusion of the wrong blood type during wartime. Apparently, this figure may well have been significantly higher during the 1950's and 60's when the typing serum used was pooled human antibody (notoriously fickle) instead of today's monoclonal antibodies.

Should you rely on military blood typing? My feeling is no, especially when inexpensive home testing kits are available to double-check your results.





Rentas FJ, Clark PA. Blood type discrepancies on military identification cards and tags: a readiness concern in the U.S. Army. Mil Med 1999 Nov;164(11):785-7

QUESTION: Is there any known correlation between blood types and epilepsy?

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ANSWER: There are a few studies linking blood groups and epilepsy, though the most striking association is not with ABO, but rather the MNS system, where it was found that one marker, the SS variant (Ss/ss/SS) showed a statistically highly significant difference (p below 0.001) in the epileptic patients compared with a control group.(1) A separate study showed a deficiency of blood group AB in the total population of epileptics (2).

There are several studies (3,4) indicating a higher rate of epilepsy in children that are the result of mother-fetus ABO incompatibility (where the fetus possesses a blood type antigen that the mother carries an antibody to). This tends to confirm my suspicion that the most important time to be eating right for your blood type is during pregnancy.





1. Tills D, Warlow A, Richens A, Laidlaw J. Genetic markers in epilepsy: a survey.Hum Hered 1981;31(1):19-31

2. Darbinian VZh, Nersisian VM, Musazlian NO, Maretirosian IG, Akopian LP. [Blood group factor and HLA-related epilepsy among the Armenian population].Zh Nevropatol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova 1990;90(9):85-7

3. Nazarow K. [Nervous and mental disorders in cases of immunologic incompatibility within ABO groups]. Neurol Neurochir Pol. 1969 May-Jun;3(3):385-8.

4. Nazarov KN. [On the pathogenesis of the neuropsychiatric sequelae of ABO incompatibility between mother and fetus]. Zh Nevropatol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 1968;68(10):1488-92.

QUESTION: How can I get more involved with your work, I am moving to Toronto and would like to get involved spreading the word about your blood type diet, It's done so much for me.

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ANSWER: You may want to contact the Institute for Human Individuality (IfHI). IfHI is being organized under the aegis of the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Scottsdale AZ. In addition to research, IfHI will also coordinate education (both at the lay and professional levels). You can contact the development office at SWCNM to find out the details about a tax-deductible donation. Also, North American Pharmacal has an extensive collection of lectures on tape available.

Also at this time I would like to acknowledge the support and work of the Steve Shapiro and his International Foundation for Blood Type Living. Steve has been a tireless supporter of the theory, and although the foundation is winding down its functions, I think I can can speak for the hundreds of others who just want him to know that his work has not gone unappreciated.

QUESTION: It seems that there are no health advantages to being a non-secretor! Do you have any guesses why 20 percent of the population would be burdened with this condition?

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ANSWER: You're right. It appears the vast majority of difficulties are associated with a non-secretor allele. Whether or not this is a purely detrimental influence, I cannot say at this point. There are a couple positives: You tend to have less lectin-related food problems, and your white blood cells tend to be more aggressive when combatting some types of cancer. On the other hand, there are a lot of metabolic problems associated with a non-secretor. Whereas non-secretors may make up between 15 to 20 percent of the population, they probably account for up to 70 percent of the people I see in my clinic -- principally because of metabolic problems, gut permeability issues, and chronic infectious disease susceptibilities.

Interestingly, what appears to be the natural selection of the non-secretor gene may have been a rather left-handed health benefit. It appears that non-secretor children who carried the gene for diabetes tended to die in utero or in very early life. Sadly enough, this may have been a benefit to our ancestors. For, in the opposite situation, with the child having lived but having been chronically ill, they would have represented quite a drain on the resources of the community. Perhaps it acted as a type of suicide gene.

Though one of the nice things about knowing you're a non-secretor, or that you're Type A or Type O, is that despite all the bad news, at least you know it! Since the really bad news would be to not know that there was bad news! [laughs] I only wish I knew more bad news about the other blood types.

QUESTION: How long have we known about blood types? How were they discovered? Who discovered them?

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ANSWER: The discovery of the ABO blood types can be said to be the work of one man, Dr. Karl Landsteiner. This is what the Nobel Lectures, a series in English of all the Nobel lectures from 1901, with biographical notes, prize citations and presentation speeches (Publisher: Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam) says about him:



Karl Landsteiner was born in Vienna on June 14, 1868. His father, Leopold Landsteiner, a doctor of law, was a well-known journalist and newspaper publisher, who died when Karl was six years old. Karl was brought up by his mother, Fanny Hess, to whom he was so devoted that a death mask of her hung on his wall until he died. After leaving school, Landsteiner studied medicine at the Univerisity of Vienna, graduating in 1891. Even while he was a student he had begun to do biochemical research end in 1891 he published a paper on the influence of diet on the composition of blood ash. To gain further knowledge of chemistry he spent the next five years in the laboratories of Hantzsch at Zurich, Emil Fischer at Wurzburg, and E. Bamberger at Munich.

Returning to Vienna, Landsteiner resumed his medical studies at the Vienna General Hospital. In 1896 he became an assistant under Max von Gruber in the Hygiene Institute at Vienna. Even at this time he was interested in the mechanisms of immunity and in the nature of antibodies. From 1898 till 1908 he held the post of assistant in the University Department of Pathological Anatomy in Vienna, the Head of which was Professor A. Weichselbaum, who had discovered the bacterial cause of meningitis, and with Fraenckel had discovered the pneumococcus. Here Landsteiner worked on morbid physiology rather than on morbid anatomy. In this he was encouraged by Weichselbaum, in spite of the criticism of others in this Institute. In 1908 Weichselbaum secured his appointment as Prosector in the Wilhelminaspital in Vienna, where he remained until 1919. In 1911 he became Professor of Pathological Anatomy in the University of Vienna, but without the corresponding salary.

Landsteiner made numerous contributions to both pathological anatomy, histology and immunology, all of which showed, not only his meticulous care in observation and description, but also his biological understanding. But his name will no doubt always be honoured for his discovery in 1901 of, and outstanding work on, the blood groups, for which he was given the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1930.

In 1875 Landois had reported that, when man is given transfusions of the blood of other animals, these foreign blood corpuscles are clumped and broken up in the blood vessels of man with the liberation of haemoglobin. In 1901-1903 Landsteiner pointed out that a similar reaction may occur when the blood of one human individual is transfused, not with the blood of another animal, but with that of another human being, and that this might be the cause of shock, jaundice, and haemoglobinuria that had followed some earlier attempts at blood transfusions.

His suggestions, however, received little attention until, in 1909, he classified the bloods of human beings into the now well-known A, B, AB, and O groups and showed that transfusions between individuals of groups A or B do not result in the destruction of new blood cells and that this catastrophe occurs only when a person is transfused with the blood of a person belonging to a different group. Earlier, in 1901-1903, Landsteiner had suggested that, because the characteristics which determine the blood groups are inherited, the blood groups may be used to decide instances of doubtful paternity. Much of the subsequent work that Landsteiner and his pupils did on blood groups and the immunological uses they made of them was done, not in Vienna, but in New York. For in 1919 conditions in Vienna were such that laboratory work was very difficult and, seeing no future for Austria, Landsteiner obtained the appointment of Prosector to a small Roman Catholic Hospital at The Hague. Here he published, from 1919-1922, twelve papers on new haptens that he had discovered, on conjugates with proteins which were capable of inducing anaphylaxis and on related problems, and also on the serological specificity of the haemoglobins of different species of animals. His work in Holland came to an end when he was offered a post in the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York and he moved there together with his family. It was here that he did, in collaboration with Levine and Wiener, the further work on the blood groups which greatly extended the number of these groups, and here in collaboration with Wiener studied bleeding in the new-born, leading to the discovery of the Rh-factor in blood, which relates the human blood to the blood of the rhesus monkey.

To the end of his life, Landsteiner continued to investigate blood groups and the chemistry of antigens, antibodies and other immunological factors that occur in the blood. It was one of his great merits that he introduced chemistry into the service of serology.

Rigorously exacting in the demands he made upon himself, Landsteiner possessed untiring energy. Throughout his life he was always making observations in many fields other than those in which his main work was done (he was, for instance, responsible for having introduced dark-field illumination in the study of spirochaetes). By nature somewhat pessimistic, he preferred to live away from people.

Landsteiner married Helen Wlasto in 1916. Dr. E. Landsteiner is a son by this marriage.

In 1939 he became Emeritus Professor at the Rockefeller Institute, but continued to work as energetically as before, keeping eagerly in touch with the progress of science. It is characteristic of him that he died pipette in hand. On June 24, 1943, he had a heart attack in his laboratory and died two days later in the hospital of the Institute in which he had done such distinguished work.

(From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941.)

QUESTION:

Why is soda water or seltzer beneficial for O types? What is it doing for us health wise? How much can we drink? Your answer will be appreciated.

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ANSWER:

Room temperature seltzer in type O helps to regulate the hormone gastrin, which acts on the appetite center. This a glass of room temperature seltzer water about 20 minute before a meal not only helps digestion, but curbs the appetite a bit also.

QUESTION: Do you have any information regarding idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP)? I am an A type and have had chronic ITP for around 8 years. Are there any food groups in particular I should go for? Thanks for a great website!

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ANSWER: I've successfully treated many patients with ITP (a disorder characterized by very low platelet count) and in fact most of them were type A blood. First of all, I'd follow the basic type A precepts and cut back on most animal products. Second, I'd recommend getting my stress levels under control, through exercise or other types of relaxation. When type A's are under a lot of stress, they can manufacture excessive amounts of cortisol, which can lower platelet numbers.

Several herbs have been used effectively to help ITP. They include the Chinese traditional medicine BUPLEUREUM (1) and the Amercian herb bayberry or BERBERIS (2). I often use 150mcg of SELENIUM and 250 mg of ASCORBATE (3) as supplements for ITP as well.





1. Duan Y, Zhao X, Xu X, Yang J, Li Z. Treatment of primary thrombocytopenic purpura by modified minor decoction of bupleurum. J Tradit Chin Med. 1995 Jun;15(2):96-8.



2. Chekalina SI, Umurzakova RZ, Saliev KK, Abdurakhmanov TR [Effect of berberine bisulfate on platelet hemostasis in thrombocytopenia patients].Gematol Transfuziol 1994 Sep-Oct;39(5):33-5 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut

3. Cohen HA, Nussinovitch M, Gross S, Hart J, Frydman M. Treatment of chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura with ascorbate. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1993 May;32(5):300-2.

QUESTION:

What is the difference between a lectin and an antibody?

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ANSWER:

Although often considered 'plant antibodies,' lectins are too varied a class of molecules to say that there is any rhyme or reason to their structure. In essence, a lectin is any protein molecule capable of binding to carbohydrates. Thus they can come in a mind-numbing variety of shapes and sizes: from huge molecules like the lectin from Helix pomatia (snail) to very tiny molecules, such as the lectin found in wheat germ.

On the other hand, antibodies are manufactured by the immune system, and other than a small portion of the molecule which is 'variable,' they are very homogenous (i.e similar to each other).

An antibody is usually made in response to an infection or innoculation. Lectins are pretty much made continuously.

Antibodies also tend to be developed against proteins, unlike lectins which tend to specifically attach to carbohydrates.

Both lectins and certain antibodies are capable of causing agglutination (the process of cells interlinking together). However, not all antibodies are agglutinins. Only the class of antibodies call IgM antibodies can cause agglutination, and interestingly, this is the class of antibodies we make against other blood types (which is why our 'anti-other blood type' antibodies are called 'iso-hemagglutinins'.)

To obfuscate things even a bit more, we often make antibodies to dietary lectins!

QUESTION: Hello, Dr. D'Adamo! Do you think there is any reason for a couple considering marriage to consider blood type compatibility?

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ANSWER: Well, I would not recommend one choose a mate based upon blood type, since, for example, I know many couples where the man is A and the woman is O (considered a very good combination in Japan! [laughs]) who can't stand each other! However, that same combination seems to work for me.

There is some evidence that certain components having to do with fertility can be shown to be under the influence of blood type, in particular, the level of antibodies a woman secretes into her vaginal tract that are directed toward other blood types can be shown to be under the influence of secretor status and diet. Since the rejection of the man's sperm can often be the result of blood type incompatibility, and the level of antibody in the woman's cervical mucus can be controlled somewhat by diet, we have here a possible rationale for why following the blood type diet has been shown to be so successful in situations of marginal fertility. This is quite dramatic. The woman I wrote about in Eat Right who had 23 miscarriages prior to seeing me, and gave birth a year later after following the diet, recently came back into my office with two more children! When I asked her why she didn't contact me when she was trying to conceive numbers two and three, she said she was rather tight on money so she just followed my directions for what to do for child number one. So the lesson here is not to necessarily choose your mate by blood type, but rather by adherence to the blood type program.

QUESTION: This is not a question this is a Thank You . I was dying from gluten poisoning. Your understanding of type O's saved my life. God bless you. In 6 months I have lost 75lb and have energy that was never their before. You saved my life. What else can I say but help spread the word. Again God bless you.

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ANSWER: Your very welcome.

QUESTION: Dear Dr. D'Adamo, Starting in January of 2000, I began your blood type diet. (I am a type O) Since starting, I have lost 25 lbs., and have experienced greater energy, and a much better functioning immune system. I am a Doctor of Chiropractic, and my question is, is your book "Eat Right 4 Your Type" available in paperback? I would like to purchase a quantity of them, and give them to my patients.

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ANSWER: There are currently no plans for printing Eat Right 4 Your Type in paperback. However Putnam is planning to release four "baby eat-rights," one for each blood type, this fall. They are softcover and will be priced rather inexpensively.

STUDY: Sex ratio and natural selection at the human ABO locus.

JOURNAL: Hum Hered 1983;33(2):130-6

AUTHORS: Millard AV, Berlin EA.

ABSTRACT: Natural selective effects of ABO maternofetal incompatibility depend on age, sex and gene frequency. This study focuses on differences of fitness according to age and sex. Calculations of genotype frequencies weighted by fitness lead to the hypothesis that forces of natural selection would favor an association of excess males with type O. Studies of polymorphic populations and homogeneous O populations provide empirical support for the hypothesis.

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COMMENTARY: It would make sense that blood group O infants would have a greater chance of surviving the immune consequences of pregnancy, since they lack any blood type antigen which could trigger an immune response from the mother. Geneticists know that recessive genes propagate according to known mathematical principles, the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.

STUDY: Effect of lectin from Chelidonium majus L. on normal and cancer cells in culture.

JOURNAL: Folia Histochem Cytobiol 2001;39(2):215-6

AUTHORS: Fik E, Wolun-Cholewa M, Kistowska M, Warchol JB, Gozdzicka-Jozefiak A.

ABSTRACT: Lectin from Chelidonium majus L. (CML) significantly stimulates the proliferation of human lymphocytes and has hemagglutination activity towards group B human erythrocytes and potent antimicrobial properties against multiresistant enterococci and staphylococci. In the present work we describe the effect of lectin from Chelidonium majus L on normal and cancercells in culture in vitro. The studies were performed on three types of cells: CHO, R2C and on normal mouse fibroblasts. Effects on the cultures were examined 24 h after addition of CML. Exposure to CML resulted in growth inhibition of CHO and R2C cells but not of fibroblasts. Moreover, evident apoptotic lesions were observed in CHO cells and less well marked apoptotic lesions in R2C cells. In contrast, only insignificant numbers of fibroblasts reacted to the applied lectin.

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COMMENTARY: Celandine (Chelidonium majus) is a commonly prescribed medical herb in naturopathic medicine, used typically to stimulate bile production and for 'liver support.' It has been known since the 1980's that celandine contained alkaloids which may possess anticancer properties, but were considered too toxic to be used clinically. Incidently, these came alkaloids possess anti-HIV activity as well (1).

Now new information describes a lectin in celandine that has immune stimulatory, and anti-bacterial activity. This may open up a new interest in the plant, although its B-specific hemagglutinating lectin may limit its value to group A and O individuals.



1. D'Adamo P. Chelidonium and sanguinaria alkaloids as anti-HIV therapy. J. Naturopath Med. 1992 (1); 31-36

QUESTION: I purchased the book "live right 4 your type". I also have "eat right 4 your type". I noticed that the information in the two books relating to diet is not the same. For example, blood type AB and coffee: "live right" says AVOID- page 322, yet "eat right" say BENEFICIAL. These are obviously two very different recommendations !! Today, on the dadamo website, I was looking at the TYPEBase page. When I look up coffee, It says exactly what the "eat right" book said - i.e. BENEFICIAL. Also on the TYPEBase page, it says that "The most up-to-date food values (in print) can be found in Live Right 4 Your Type." book. So now, I am thoroughly confused. Did I purchase a copy of the "live right 4 yout type" book with misprints ?

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ANSWER: First the easy part. TYPEbase is derived from a spreadsheet which was slightly more dated than what was orginally publsihed as Live Right 4 Your Type. This is being corrected, and probably as you read this TYPEbase will harmonize with Live Right 4 Your Type.

As far as the coffee difference between Eat Right 4 Your Type. and Live Right 4 Your Type, It basically stems from information suggestive that although I originally though otherwise, blood group AB differs from group A in two important manners:

1.) they react to stress more similar to group O (excessive catecholamine production) than group A. Coffee drinking elevates catecholamine production.

2.) evidence suggests that group AB's need to keep the Natural Killer Cell (NK) activity optimized, probably as a way to offset the lack of any opposing blood group antibodies. Coffee drinking is known to decrease NK activity.

QUESTION: I have read rather extensive material relating how soybeans and soy products contain substances that inhibit the enzyme secreted by the pancreas that facilitates protein digestion, protease inhibitors, I believe. What about this?

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ANSWER: When will this anti-soy bashing stop? If you are type A or AB please ignore this type of junk science.

But now, the facts about BBI:

Soy does contain a protease inhibitor, named 'Bowman-Birk Soy Protease Inhibitor' or BBI (1)

Although it has been isolated in soy milk (although you have to drink about 60oz of soy milk 2-3 times daily), BBI is destroyed in cooked soy products, which are devoid of protease inhibitor activity. (2)

Significant effects from protease inhibition can only be produced in rats by feeding them astronomically large amounts of raw soy flour. (4)

The classical Bowman-Birk inhibitor from soya retards strongly the hydrolysis of elastin catalyzed by leukocyte elastase, cathepsin G and the mixture of both. (5)

Now, what the 'anti-soy boys' don't either understand or will not tell you:

1. BBI protease inhibitor from soy has well recognized anti-carcinogenic properties (3).

2. BBI protease inhibitor from soy is a signifiant inhibitor of Human Leucocyte Elastase (HLE) and enzyme that dissolves the protein elastin and also degrades and inactivates a number of plasma proteins. Elastase probably plays a physiological function in neutrophil migration, phagocytosis and tissue remodeling. HLE apparently plays a pathological role in pulmonary emphysema, rheumatoid arthritis, endometriosis, infections and inflammation. (7)

Thus type A's on a soy based diet can look foward to having lower levels of inflammation, allergy, cancer and infection by virtue of this 'poison' in soy!

I find it interesting that many of the soy-bashers recommend soups and other gellatin-based products, which are rich in the polysaccharide chondroitin sulphate. Just like soy protease inhibitor, chondroitin is also a 'protease inhibitor' with regard to HLE.(6) So what's the difference?



1. Kelloff GJ et al. Progress in cancer chemoprevention: development of diet-derived chemopreventive agents. J Nutr. 2000 Feb;130(2S Suppl):467S-471S.

2. Wan XS, Lu LJ, Anderson KE, Ware JH, Kennedy AR. Urinary excretion of Bowman-Birk inhibitor in humans after soy consumption as determined by a monoclonal antibody-based immunoassay. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2000 Jul;9(7):741-7

3. Cancer Invest 1996;14(6):597-608 Protease inhibitors and carcinogenesis: a review. Clawson GA

4. J Nutr 1995 Mar;125(3 Suppl):744S-750S Possible adverse effects of soybean anticarcinogens. Liener IE

5. Biokhimiia 1994 Nov;59(11):1739-45 [Inhibition of elastin hydrolysis, catalyzed by human leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G, by the Bowman-Birk type soy inhibitor]. Tikhonova TV, Gladysheva IP, Kazanskaia NF, Larionova NI

6. Volpi N. Inhibition of human leukocyte elastase activity by chondroitin sulfates. Chem Biol Interact. 1997 Aug 1;105(3):157-67.

7. Pathol Biol (Paris) 1988 Nov;36(9):1108-11 [Human leukocyte elastase].Bieth JG

on. (7)

Thus type A's on a soy based diet can look foward to having lower levels of inflammation, allergy, cancer and infection by virtue of this 'poison' in soy!

I find it interesting that many of the soy-bashers recommend soups and other gellatin-based products, which are rich in the polysaccharide chondroitin sulphate. Just like soy protease inhibitor, chondroitin is also a 'protease inhibitor' with regard to HLE.(6) So what's the difference?



1. Kelloff GJ et al. Progress in cancer chemoprevention: development of diet-derived chemopreventive agents. J Nutr. 2000 Feb;130(2S Suppl):467S-471S.

2. Wan XS, Lu LJ, Anderson KE, Ware JH, Kennedy AR. Urinary excretion of Bowman-Birk inhibitor in humans after soy consumption as determined by a monoclonal antibody-based immunoassay. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2000 Jul;9(7):741-7

3. Cancer Invest 1996;14(6):597-608 Protease inhibitors and carcinogenesis: a review. Clawson GA

4. J Nutr 1995 Mar;125(3 Suppl):744S-750S Possible adverse effects of soybean anticarcinogens. Liener IE

5. Biokhimiia 1994 Nov;59(11):1739-45 [Inhibition of elastin hydrolysis, catalyzed by human leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G, by the Bowman-Birk type soy inhibitor]. Tikhonova TV, Gladysheva IP, Kazanskaia NF, Larionova NI

6. Volpi N. Inhibition of human leukocyte elastase activity by chondroitin sulfates. Chem Biol Interact. 1997 Aug 1;105(3):157-67.

7. Pathol Biol (Paris) 1988 Nov;36(9):1108-11 [Human leukocyte elastase].Bieth JG

QUESTION:

I recently discovered Edamame (boiled soy beans in the pod). Where do they fit in the Type A diet? They are fairly high in protein, fat and fiber.

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ANSWER:

Edamane are a wonderful food choice for type A. I sometimes pick up some as take out at the local Japanese restaurant and have them for lunch or a quick pick-up.

QUESTION: Hi I live in London, England and I would like to find out if I am a secretor or not. Can I order your test to be sent here?

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ANSWER: North American Pharmacal has allied with Stacktheme, a UK supplement distributor based in Scotland to provide products and testing services. They can be contacted on the internet at www.stacktheme.com

The contact person over there is my friend Nick Bowler.