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Eating fish associated with significant health benefits: pooled analysis
There is a significant protective benefit of fish consumption in
people with cardiovascular disease, as well as with significant
improvements in multiple other health outcomes.
An umbrella review of meta-analyses found that increased
fish consumption also improved rates of cardiovascular
and all-cause mortality. However, fish consumption had no
significant effects on rates of hypertension, atrial fibrillation,
or type 2 diabetes.
Although not directly reflected in the findings, modest
fish consumption also appears to be was associated with
significant improvements in multiple health outcomes,
including the risks for myocardial infarction, stroke and heart
failure to have cardiac benefits, according to a
Journal of the
American Medical Association
commentary.
Medscape Medical News
reports that researchers Jayedi
and Shab-Bidar examined 34 meta-analyses of prospective
observational studies, which featured a total of 40 different
outcomes. Greater fish consumption of 100 g/day was
associated with significant improvements in multiple health
outcomes, including the risks for myocardial infarction,
stroke and heart failure.
Medscape Medical News
comments that there is a lack
of large studies that have differentiated the effects of fish
consumption among adults with and without a history of
cardiovascular disease (CVD). The current study addresses
this gap.
People with CVD who regularly ate fish had significantly
fewer major CVD events and there were fewer total deaths
compared with similar individuals who did not eat fish,
but there was no beneficial link from eating fish among the
general population in prospective data collected from more
than 191 000 people from 58 countries.
Despite the neutral finding among people without CVD,
the finding that eating fish was associated with significant
benefit for those with CVD or who were at high risk for CVD
confirms the public health importance of regular fish or fish
oil consumption, says one expert.
A little more than a quarter of those included in the new
study had a history of CVD or were at high risk for CVD.
In this subgroup of more than 51 000 people, those who
consumed on average at least two servings of fish weekly (at
least 175 g, or about 6.2 ounces per week) had a significant
16% lower rate of major CVD events during a median follow
up of about 7.5 years.
The rate of all-cause death was a significant 18% lower
among people who ate two or more fish portions weekly
compared with those who did not, say Dr Deepa Mohan and
associates. The researchers saw no additional benefit when
people regularly ate greater amounts of fish.
‘There is a significant protective benefit of fish
consumption in people with cardiovascular disease,’ summed
up Dr Andrew Mente, a senior investigator on the study
and an epidemiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Canada. ‘This study has important implications for guidelines
on fish intake globally. It indicates that increasing fish
consumption, and particularly oily fish, in vascular patients
may produce a modest cardiovascular benefit,’ he said in a
statement released by McMaster.
The neutral finding of no significant benefit (as well as
no harm) regarding either CVD events or total mortality
among people without CVD ‘does not alter the large body of
prior observational evidence supporting the cardiac benefits
of fish intake in general populations,’ notes Dr Dariush
Mozaffarian, in a commentary that accompanies the report.
Although the new analysis failed to show a significant
association between regular fish consumption and
fewer CVD events for people without established CVD
or CVD risk, ‘based on the cumulative evidence from
prospective observational studies, randomised clinical trials,
and mechanistic and experimental studies, modest fish
consumption appears to have some cardiac benefits,’ he adds.
‘Adults should aim to consume about two servings of fish
per week, and larger benefits may accrue from non-fried oily
(dark meat) fish,’ writes Mozaffarian, a professor of medicine
and nutrition at Tufts University School of Medicine,
Boston, Massachusetts. Oily, dark fishes include salmon,
tuna steak, mackerel, herring and sardines. Species such
as these contain the highest levels of long-chain omega-
3 fatty acids, eicosapentanoic and docosapentanoic acid;
these nutrients likely underlie the CVD benefits from fish,
Mozaffarian says.
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