Women who eat more than three servings of fish per week are less likely to experience a stroke, a new study suggests. Specifically, fish-lovers in Sweden were 16 percent less likely to experience a stroke over a 10-year-period, relative to women who ate fish less than once a week.
"Fish consumption in many countries, including the US, is far too low, and increased fish consumption would likely result in substantial benefits in the population," said Dr Dariush Mozaffarian of the Harvard School of Public Health, who reviewed the findings for Reuters Health.
When choosing fish to eat, it's best to opt for fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, found most abundantly in fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna. "But any fish is better than none," Mozaffarian noted.
Indeed, these fatty acids likely underlie the benefits of fish on stroke risk, study author Dr Susanna Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm told Reuters Health. "These fatty acids may reduce the risk of stroke by reducing blood pressure and blood fat concentrations."
This is not the first study to suggest that people who eat more fish have a lower risk of stroke, and experts already recommend a fishy diet to reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems, Mozaffarian added. "This study supports current recommendations."
Earlier this year, for instance, a study showed that middle-aged and older men who eat fish every day are less likely than infrequent fish eaters to develop a suite of risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
In the current study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Larsson and her colleagues looked at 34,670 women 49 to 83 years old. All were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at the beginning of the study, in 1997.