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The Bald Truth About Your Blood Type

By Martha Brockenbrough

In Japan, I would be considered arty, mysterious and unpredictable -- and not just because I tend to wear black turtlenecks, mumble and bump into things.

It's because my blood type is AB, and many Japanese these days consider blood type the window to the soul. A series of books -- one on each blood type -- has sold more than 5 million copies there along with the promise that your blood type explains everything about your personality.

These books claim that if you're an A, you're a sensitive, overanxious perfectionist; if you're a B, you're cheerful, eccentric and self-centered; and if you're an O, you're curious, generous and stubborn.

"Hey baby, what's your blood type" even acts as a pickup line of sorts.

"Sorry -- you're not my type"
According to an Associated Press story on the topic, matchmaking agencies in Japan use blood types to pair off potential lovers. Some companies are even factoring it into hiring decisions. Kindergartners have been divvied up by blood type and the gold-medal-winning women's softball team at the Beijing Olympics based players' training on the theory.

It's definitely a factor in pop culture. A four-night drama series called "How Women of Certain Blood Types Marry" aired recently on Japanese TV. If you're a Japanese pop star, you will most likely reveal your blood type on your Web site (like one Ayumi Hamasaki, a type-A sensitive, overanxious perfectionist who also weighs 88 pounds and dislikes "pig leg," which may or may not be related to her weight).

While it all sounds fun and funny, it becomes less so when you realize something like this might affect your opportunities at work. (But just in case, editors, I'm predictable. Really! And hardly mysterious. And only arty in a good way.)

Personalities mix, blood doesn't
Scientifically speaking, there is no known link between your blood type and your personality. There is at least one physiological trait that seems to affect personality, though -- the British journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently reported on a study that showed having a long ring finger was linked with greater success among men who traded stocks. (This is related to testosterone exposure in the womb, apparently.)

So I'm not going to make complete fun of the Japanese, in case they're on to something. Here's what we do know about blood, though. The surfaces of your red blood cells have proteins known as substance A or substance B, both substances, or neither of them. This will give you A, B, AB or O blood. You also have an Rh factor that's either positive or negative (mine's negative). (Read more about blood types on Encarta.)

These things matter with blood transfusions. If you're a blood type A and you get blood from a person with type B, your anti-B antibodies will destroy the incoming cells.

And if you're a pregnant woman with Rh-negative blood, you will need a special shot if you're pregnant with an Rh-positive child because your antibodies might attack your baby's red blood cells, which can cause jaundice, anemia, brain damage and even death.

Because of these life-and-death issues, the discovery of differences in blood type ranks up with the top medical discoveries of the past millennium.

The discovery has also been linked with some of the worst horrors of the last millennium. A German "professor of racial science" named Otto Reche founded the Society for Blood Group Research in the late 1920s to figure out links between race and blood type. He wasn't the first to do this, but he did link his research to Nazi policy, hoping to use it to sniff out Jewish ancestry in paternity cases, among other things.

"My skull can't handle commitment"
Maybe it's my unpredictability talking, but I actually prefer the kooky pseudoscience known as phrenology to all of this blood-type stuff, anyway.

Developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by German anatomist and physician Franz Joseph Gall, phrenology claimed that the shape of your skull could reveal your abilities and personality traits. Over time, Gall and his protégé developed a system that tracked 37 moral and mental faculties including "self esteem," "firmness," "benevolence" and "sublimity." (Yeah, I had to look that last one up, too.)

The big problem? Even if you're not particularly thick-headed, your skull is thick enough that your soft brain has no chance of influencing its shape. Also, the shapes of the skull and the brain below are different, and there's nothing to suggest that character traits are located in particular spots.

Gall wasn't completely wasting his time, though. Among other things, he did figure out that the brain and spinal cord have both gray and white matter, Encarta reveals.

At any rate, if we're going to start judging each other for silly, superficial things, skull shape is a much better way to go. You don't need to bleed to do it, and with the bald-chic that seems to be going around Hollywood these days, we could learn all sorts of interesting things with just a decent search engine.

In fact, I am holding the chart up to a picture of Bruce Willis hugging Ashton Kutcher right now, and it appears he has robust self-esteem and perhaps even an abundance of firmness. No wonder he's able to hug his ex-wife's younger, hairier husband in public.

Meanwhile, Patrick Stewart, who's a little pointier on top (like Pericles, perhaps?), has a tendency toward immortality. Could Gall possibly have been predicting syndicated television?

Cal Ripken Jr., meanwhile, has a distinct bulge of benevolence, which would explain the Cal Ripken Sr. foundation he started. The singer Seal seems to reveal a tendency toward mirthfulness; the same, though, could be said about anyone married to Heidi Klum. In any case, he definitely bulges in the "tune" segment.

Wow. A person could spend a lot of time playing with fake science. I have to say, though, I am limiting my interest in this to the shape of celebrity chrome-domes. Much as I am loath to bleed to reveal my personality, I'm even less likely to shave my head for this purpose. I wouldn't want people to see my sublimity bulge. I have my reputation for mysteriousness to keep intact, you know.

Create Date : 21 มีนาคม 2552		0 comments
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