Now, Dr D'Adamo--armed with new studies on genetic links between blood types, disease and behaviour--looks at the psychological and medical peculiarities that seem to predominate in one blood type or another. Type O's, for example, have lower than average amounts of a brain chemical called dopamine, leading to poor concentration, hyperactivity and temper tantrums. A's tend to manufacture too much cortisol, a stress hormone that can lead to hypertension and has even been implicated in Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Type B's and AB's clear nitric oxide out of their systems faster, allowing them to calm down more rapidly than other blood types when stressed.

Dr D'Adamo offers detailed lifestyle modifications for each type, including exercise programs, long lists of food to either seek out or avoid, and suggested treatment of specific illnesses. Some of this gets pretty arcane, including his recommendation of bladder wrack (a seaweed) for ulcer treatment of Type O's.

A big part of the appeal of this book series is that anyone reading it can become a participant by joining Dr D'Adamo's online blood-type registry. Live Right For Your Type is peppered with testimonials from these registrants, giving the reader a sense that a true transformation in health, appearance, weight and well-being is just a few diet and lifestyle changes away. --Lou Schuler

If your life seems strangely out of kilter and you and your doctors can't quite put your finger on what's wrong, I strongly urge you to read this book. It may well contain important clues for creating more "wellness" for you from the correct application of self-discipline in your eating and activities. The basic weakness of most scientific studies and almost all health books is that they look at average results for the whole population. The studies cited in this book are based on seeing major differences in the body chemistries of people with different blood types. In the same way that you can drown in an average of six inches of water (if that average expresses a range from 10 feet deep to half an inch), the average health advice can make your health worse in some cases.

Eat Right 4 Your Type was first published in 1996. That pioneering book summarized hundreds of research studies to define healthful eating for people with each different blood type. The underlying mechanism for this relationship is that your blood type influences your body chemistry in ways that create vulnerability or resistance to disease and an efficiently operating body. The four blood types are O, A, B, and AB. Type O people need the most animal protein (especially beef. Type A people need lots of vegetables. Type B people should eat a varied diet. Type AB people should eat smaller, more frequent meals.

Based on that book, many people reported remarkable gains in health, vitality, and weight loss after changing what they eat. In my case, my weight is now much less than on my old way of eating (one that my Mother, who has Type A blood, had encouraged all my life -- but I am a Type O person). Many such case histories are reported in Live Right for Your Type.

Live Right 4 Your Type includes all of the diet information of Eat Right 4 Your Type, and adds to it insights into personality development, stress management, digestion, disease, and aging. Space does not permit explaining each of these links here, but personality traits are related to different ways that brain chemicals are created and processed by people with different blood types. Type O people, for example, are more easily stimulated into "fight or flight" responses and stay in them longer.

Genetic influences are the beginning of how these factors influence you. Your genes for blood type and other traits come from your parents. From these genes, you get a phenotype (one of the four blood types), a secretion status (whether you secrete antigens into your other bodily fluids or not, as well as into your blood), a Rhesus Factor (positive or negative), and your MN blood type (MM, NN, or MN). All of these concepts are well explained in the appendix of the book. There are also instructions for how you can send away to be tested so you will know what your characteristics are (a total cost of $51.40). In the main body of the book are many explanations of how each of these factors have been associated with the different aspects of life.

The heart of the book though comes in four sections where all of the information about each of the four main blood types is summarized. Yup, there I was in the Type O group with my quick temper, inclination to stay stressed out once stressed, oversensitivity to caffeine and alcohol, impulsiveness to create variety, and blissful reaction to exercise. Dr. D'Adamo definitely had me pegged.

To me the greater insight was when I looked at the type for my wife. I had become concerned about some health vulnerabilities she was experiencing. Yup, there they were. And the things that help her were the items listed. I heaved a big sigh of relief. Whew! It's natural.

If you want to take all of this further, there are instructions in the book for how to get more instructional material and to order special food supplements for each blood type. Normally, I find such offerings offensive. In this case, I had the opposite reaction. I don't know where else to get information that will help me, and I want to know more.

Unlike many books that are based on one study or one hypothesis, this book is built on hundreds of studies. These are cited in the back of the book. Although I did not look any of these up, these seemed to be from reputable sources. There is some speculation in the book. I was fascinated to see that some of the brain chemistry related genes are located next to the blood type genes in DNA. We don't know enough yet to know what that means. It may mean nothing, but it is certainly interesting to think about.

After you have finished following advice in this book and feeling better, I suggest that you think about people you care about who are potentially living and eating in ways that don't match their blood types. Please do share this book with them. You will be giving a very precious gift.

Live more naturally, in keeping with your true physical self!


can change your approach to eating & life   July 6, 2002
 24 out of 24 found this review helpful

This book is really useful.

Concepts and jargon are explained clearly and concisely (eg. how antiboby works, etc.) I'm type A and now I understand why the Macrobiotic diet has been great for me.

The content is focused on practical explanations and solutions for each of the 4 blood types. The author distinguishes the food into 3 categories: highly beneficial, Neutral, Avoid.

Must read if you want to feel better!


Goodbye illness hello extremely good health and wellness.   August 12, 2001
 19 out of 19 found this review helpful

Almost the only book you will need for improving total health and wellbeing, plenty of individualised disease preventing curative advice backed up by years of research and actual case histories. Undescribable how well eating this way can make you feel. My family and friends are reaping the rewards too. This and his other two books will be the best gift you could give anyone, especially if they are seriously ill or just lacking energy. Well written, well researched and his website with 51,000 case histories of people saying thank you for restoring their health can't be wrong. Buy it now.


A brilliant book that further refines the blood type diet   February 13, 2001
 19 out of 20 found this review helpful

I highly recommend this book, as a person who has been following the blood type-based diet put forth in the author's first book, "Eat Right for Your Type", for over three years. "Live Right for Your Type" goes into a lot more depth and is essentially prescriptive in nature, teaching the reader how to fine-tune the diet to work in perfect harmony with her/his blood type, in order to minimize systemic blood type specific weaknesses and maximize strengths. Working in such harmony and tandem with our own bodies produces a deep state of health that is very hard to appreciate unless you have tried the diet. I simply cannot over-emphasize how much this diet has done for me. My quality of life is totally different than three years ago! And now with the knowledge, detail and further refinement in this new book, I feel I will attain notches unknown! Not bad for someone who started out on this journey simply to lose weight! This diet is the best way to lose weight and keep it off, but it is so much more than that! The key word I keep coming back to is "harmony"--eating a diet that is in harmony with our blood types restores a feeling of balance and health that is quite dramatic. Anyone who has had trouble following other diets, or gained all their weight back, or has chronic health issues, or is perfectly healthy and wants to remain that way for life--get this book!!!!


At Last, the Details We Have Been Waiting For   December 30, 2000
 21 out of 21 found this review helpful

The details that were left out of D'Adamo's first book "Eat Right 4 Your Type" (because they were considered too technical for the general public) are all here, making this a complete diet and lifestyle manual for those interested in understanding what is right for their individual blood group. Lots of current health research relating to blood type is fully referenced, giving it a good scientific basis. To make the book work fully you have to know not only your basic ABO blood group, but also your 'secretor status' - available by further testing. It takes a little while to get to grips with the '2-Tier' system used by the author, one tier for those who may only want to comply with their recommended foods to a limited extent, and one tier for those who want to do it all the right way. Minus point: the foods are still 'American', translation to English is needed in some cases. Also watch out for the typos in this first edition, and check out D'Adamo's web site for corrections before getting too fixed on what you can or can't eat.