SNP Of The Week: FUT2

Are you chronically sick? Have you tried various diets that don’t seem to have any positive effect on you? Do you know your secretor type? Do you even know how being a secretor (or non-secretor) can influence your health?

FUT2 (or Fucosyltransferase 2) is involved in the formation of H antigen, and the aforementioned gene helps determine whether you are a secretor or a non-secretor. A blood type is a sugar molecule made of the following combinations of sugars attached to your red blood cells: A, B, AB or O.

80% of humans are secretors, meaning that a ‘secretor’ individual will release his/her blood group into parts of the body that secrete fluid (e.g. mucus, saliva, tears, sweat). This is all fine and dandy if you live in today’s ‘toxic’ world. Where do the possible health risks come into play?

The other 20% of humans are non-secretors, meaning they barely secrete their blood type throughout the body via fluids. As a result these individuals are at higher risks for:

• Bad teeth/poor dental health

• Type 1 Diabetes

• Insulin resistance

• Other autoimmune conditions (e.g. IBD or IBS)

• Wheat, grains & carbohydrate intolerance

• Altered gut flora

There is a diet plan for FUT2 non-secretors (for each of the ABO blood group) which is ‘claimed’ to be tailored to them, reducing the risks of autoimmune conditions and the severity of already present autoimmune conditions.

Non-secretors are claimed to be severely deficient in the beneficial bacteria called Bifidobacteria[1], and this likely explains the often severe dental problems these individuals experience. Taking supplements may or may not be beneficial because the following study claimed that babies born to mothers with FUT2 mutations have different breast milk[2], and as a result, the baby may be born with altered gut flora which follows the child into adulthood[3].