“Alien” Blood: Health risks of being Rh Negative

Blood is the currency of life. It is something that we as humans, share with all other
humans, no matter what backgrounds and social status they have. Rich, poor, young and old alike,
we all have the same substance running through our veins that give us life and strength until the
day that we breathe no more. Our blood connects us to every human alive. But, even though blood
give us a “universal similarity", it also gives a certain distinction that differentiates us from the
general population. In 1900, Karl Landsteiner proved just that and discovered why earlier attempts
of blood transfusion resulted to the untimely death of the blood recipient: the ABO blood group.
But Landsteiner’s discoveries didn’t end there, because in 1907, he and Alexander Weiner
came upon another discovery that is crucial to the field of medicine: the Rh Factor or the Rhesus
Factor. The Rhesus Factor (or the Rh Antigen) is a blood protein that is found in the red blood
cells of the body and it categorizes the human blood into two types: the Rh-positive and the Rh-
negative. A person is considered Rh positive if he or she has the Rh antigen in his or her blood and
if otherwise, he or she is Rh-negative (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
2018).

Rh factor was given such a name as it was first discovered in the blood of the Rhesus
monkey and is considered as the tie of humans to the apes, implying the idea that this humans (the
Rh-positive) really are the descendants of the apes. But what about those who are Rh-negative?
Some scientists have been “bothered” by the origin of the Rh-negative blood. A common theory
is that the Rh-negative blood came from the aliens, a product born out of interbreeding with
humans. An example of an evidence supporting the theory is the Rh incompatibility between a Rh-
positive male and a Rh-negative female. Once pregnant, the female may suffer spontaneous
abortion, as if the mother’s body is rejecting the Rh-positive fetus, implying that breeding of two
different species is not possible.
There are also other bizarre characteristics observed from people who are Rh-negative.
They have lower than normal blood pressure and body temperature and/or an extra vertebra. They
also tend to have psychic abilities, increased sensitivity to heat and sunlight and many more. It
seems that if the alien theory is true, the Rh-negative people are the dominant race, having unique
physical characteristic and supernatural abilities. But medically, studies show otherwise. Is it
because, if ever they will truly alien in origin, that their bodies are less conditioned on earthly
inhabitation or is it just a product of poor lifestyle and certain circumstances? Is being Rh-negative
a wonder of nature or a curse?
In a study documenting the health status and incidence of health disorders in both Rh
groups, it showed that subjects who are Rh-negative reported more incidence of frequent allergic,
digestive, heart, hematological, immunity, mental health problems and neurological problems. The
study also found out that Rh-negative subjects had more serious health problems in 6 of 22
analyzed variables (which included heart, hematological, immunity, mental health problems etc.)
than Rh-positive subjects (Flegr, Hoffmann, & Dammann, 2015). It means that Rh negative
subjects have higher risks of developing certain heart and respiratory diseases, and some immunity
and autoimmunity related diseases. They have problems with diseases autoimmune in origin,
which are diseases where the immune system wrongly attacks the body and also, have lesser
resistance from bacterial infections.
Rh positivity tends to also protect people from the negative effects of smoking and aging.
In a study aiming to compare the effects of smoking and aging on the psychomotor performance,
intelligence, personality profile, and health of both Rh positive and negative Czech soldiers where
3,821 male draftees were made as subjects, out of which 3109 are Rh-positive and 712 are Rh-
negative, it was found out that the effects of aging on four of Cattell’s personality factors such as
dominance, radicalism, self-sentiment integration and ergic tension were stronger in Rh-negative
subjects than in Rh-positive subjects. Also, the effect of smoking on the number of viral and
bacterial diseases were three times greater in Rh-negative subjects. (Flegr, Geryk, & Volny, 2012)
Another study conducted by the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of
Florida on the incidence of small cell lung cancer among Rh-negative patients, it was observed
that there is a higher number of patients who are Rh-negative with small cell lung cancer (SCLC).
In this study, lung cancer was categorized into its two types: the non-small lung cancer (where
squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma are under) and small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung
cancers are more aggressive than non-small cell lung cancer (MedicalNewsToday, 2019). The
graph below shows below that out of 89 cases of lung cancer in patients who are Rh-negative, 19
(21.35%) of them have SCLC (Biswas, Jiang, & Li, 2018). This means that people who are Rh-
negative tend to have greater chances of acquiring small cell lung cancer than any other type of
lung cancer, increasing the chances of them having more aggressive and fatal types of lung cancer.
 It was also found out that mothers who are Rh-negative with Rh-positive partners have
higher risks of having children with disability. Rh incompatibility (where the mother is Rh-
negative and the father is Rh-positive) are more common in parents with children who are
physically and/or mentally disabled than in parents with normal children. The same blood
incompatibility causes hemolytic disease, which if not treated immediately, will cause damages to
the nervous system which may lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, cerebral palsy and intellectual
disability. In short, maternal and fetal blood incompatibility increases the chances of the child to
be born with disability. (Mehrhommadi, 2015)
The correlation between Rh factor and lifespan had also been studied, to know if Rh factor
can also affect the life expectancy of an individual. There is such a study conducted by the
Department of Anthropology of the Haldia Government College in West Bengal, India where the
subjects came from Uttarakhand in Northern India. Uttarakhand became an interesting source of
subjects because according to the 2010 Indian Census the life expectancy of the rural Uttarakhand
at 71.0% is higher than that of India which is at 66.7%, despite of the place having limited access
to standard healthcare system. It was found out that Uttarakhand had a high prevalence of
individuals who have Rh-positive antigens in their bodies, which provide natural immunity to the
them, which may account to the higher life expectancy of their inhabitants. (Pawar, Chakraborty,
& Mukherjee, 2017)
Although the only medically proven risk being Rh-negative are the complications brought
about by Rh incompatibility during pregnancy, the following sources show that it can also be a
factor for one to be prone to certain diseases, having weak immunity, or a shorter life expectancy.
Still, thorough research and experiments are needed to in order to guarantee and prove the link of
being Rh-negative to the mentioned risks and to whether it has a proven correlation to the incidence
of diseases, disability and life expectancy for subjects.

References
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2018, February). Retrieved from
https://www.acog.org/-/media/For-Patients/faq027.pdf?dmc=1&ts=20200104T1243515370

Biswas, A., Jiang, Y., & Li, D. (2018). The Prevalence of Rhesus-Negative Blood Group Among Patient
With Small Cell Lung Cancer and Analysis of Its Effect on Overall Survival. Retrieved from
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2018.00358/full?fbclid=IwAR15eFCc55vBBH
H5moCZZFLKUMwzXAJ2ehQfqanSKRQ4VIkz3obQ9Lw6SSM

Flegr, J., Geryk, J., & Volny, J. (2012, November 28). Rhesus Factor Modulation of Effects of Smoking and
Age on Psychomotor Performance, Intelligence, Personality Profile, and Health in Czech Soldiers.
Retrieved from
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wfBZm1m2j3IIze-4eI_08lnWxKHvNjpCY0FdvlpWL-7ab_0XPtKbT8

Flegr, J., Hoffmann, R., & Dammann, M. (2015, November 22). Worse Health Status and Higher Incidence
of Health Disorders in Rhesus Negative Subjects. Retrieved from
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0049478&fbclid=IwAR2sv
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MedicalNewsToday. (2019). (S. Han, Ed.) Retrieved from
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/316477.php#symptoms

Mehrhommadi, M. (2015). ABO and Rh Blood Type Relationship in Parents with more than One Disabled
Child. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4779153/?fbclid=IwAR1jY0lmFAnlQF-
AO5rE3zAzwFam29AAzNqmxSXEa8ykrYBatC841EgtHZY

Pawar, Chakraborty, M., & Mukherjee, K. (2017, October 25). Is Rh Factor Behind the Moderate Life
Expectancy of Uttarakhand Tribals? A Brief Review. Retrieved from
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/is-rh-factor-is-behind-the-moderate-life-expectancy-of-
uttarakhandtribals-a-brief-review-2332-0915-1000191.pdf