Category: Rh Negative Health

Health differences between rh negative and rh positive people are being more and more discussed.
One of the studies worth noting is ours:
Worse Health Status and Higher Incidence of Health Disorders in Rhesus Negative Subjects

Previously many studies have indicated health differences between rh negative and rh positive indivuduals in general, but our study also points out that rh positive heterozygotes do best health wise.
A heterozygote is an individual having two different alleles of a particular gene or genes, and so giving rise to varying offspring.
In our case it would be an individual whose phenotype is Rh D Positive (+), but the genotype is Rh D Positive/Negative (+/-) carrying the Rh D negative gene recessively.
A homozygote is an individual having two of the same allele of a particular gene or genes.
An rh positive homozygote is and insividual whose phenotype is Rh D Positive (+) and the genotype is Rh D Positive/Positive (+/+).
An Rh D Negative individual can only be a homozygote as the gene is recessive so all rh negatives are phenotype – and genotype -/-.

The heterozygous advantage describes the case in which the heterozygote genotype has a higher relative fitness than either the homozygote dominant or homozygote recessive genotype.

In plain simple English it means that

Rh positives who are Rh negative recessively are the healthiest.
Then come rh positives who are not rh negative recessively.
The least healthy individuals are rh negative people.