What is Secretor and Non-Secretor Status?
Learn the Benefits of Discovering your Secretor Status

For many people, knowing their blood type and following the basic diets in Eat Right 4 Your Type works very well. However, some individuals may not derive maximum benefit from the Blood Type Diet until they determine their Secretor Status. Knowing this information allows for the use of the more specific diet lists included in the book Live Right 4 Your Type.

What is Secretor Status?

To simplify, a "secretor" is a person who secretes their blood type antigens into their body fluids and secretions like the saliva in your mouth, the mucus in your digestive tract, perspiration, etc.Your blood type is controlled by your genetics, just as are your hair or eye color. For a majority of people, other genes interact with their blood type gene, determining their ability to secrete their blood type antigens into body fluids and secretions. This is called the secretor gene, and by testing for this gene we can determine whether you are a secretor or non-secretor.

Determine your secretor status here.

In the genetics of the secretor system two options exist. A person can be either a secretor (Se) or a non-secretor (se). This is completely independent of whether you are a blood type A, B, AB, or O. Thus a person could be an A secretor or an A non-secretor, a B secretor or a B non-secretor, etc.

As a general rule, about 15-20% of the Canadian population are non-secretors, with the remaining 80-85% being secretors.

Secretors

In a simplified sense, a secretor is defined as a person who secretes their blood type antigens into body fluids and secretions like the saliva in your mouth, the mucus in your digestive tract and respiratory cavities, etc. A non-secretor on the other hand puts little to none of their blood type into these same fluids.

Non-Secretors

A non-secretor on the other hand puts little to none of their blood type into these same fluids. Aside from the physical implications centering around whether you have blood type antigens in your body fluids or not, the secretor genetics have additional significance through the effects of gene linkage: In other words, the outcome of your secretor genetics ‘links’ to other seemingly unrelated genes and influences their function.

Your secretor status drastically alters the carbohydrates present in your body fluids and secretions in addition to several important aspects of your metabolism and resistance. These factors include the activity of an enzyme called intestinal alkaline phosphatase, the overall composition of bacteria in your intestinal ecosystem, your propensities toward blood clotting, your level of carbohydrate tolerance, your resistance to certain parasites and yeast.

In addition to allowing important diet refinements, knowing your secretor status can help you use nutritional supplements more effectively and intelligently and add to your awareness of illness and metabolic dysfunction you may be prone to because of your secretor genetics.

Previously, Secretor status could only be determined by select labs using sophisticated forensic techniques. Now we've made this important test available directly available to the general public using a simple saliva sample to perform the determination.

Determine your secretor status here.

Further information on Secretor status here.