Fish is Good For a Healthy Heart

(HealthScout) -- Tuna, salmon, mackerel -- take your pick -- but include at least one of these fatty fish each week in your diet if you're older and you want to lower your risk of dying from a heart attack.

But take note fried fish lovers: Even if you eat lean fish like cod, it won't lower that death risk.

That's the conclusion of a study presented today at the American Heart Association's 41st annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

Researchers looked at almost seven years of data on more than 4,000 people over the age of 65, enrolled in the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Cardiovascular Health Study, and found those who ate a modest amount of fatty fish had a 44 percent lower risk of dying from a heart attack.

None of the participants had cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the study in l988. They were contacted every six months and came in for a yearly round of tests. The average age was 72 at the beginning of the study.

Diets that included one or more servings a week of fatty fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel, were compared to those that included less than one serving a week. Fatty fish contain the so-called good fats, known as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. These acids are associated in the study with the lower risk of heart disease.

If they ate modest amounts of fried fish -- even though it was lean, such as cod, catfish and snapper -- that wasn't as good. It was not associated with lowering the risk of having a fatal heart attack.

"There's a pretty good body of evidence in animals and basic science that omega fatty acids stabilize electrical activity of heart muscle cells and reduce the charge that goes into electrical disturbances, or arrhythmia," says lead author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian. He is a fellow in cardiology and health services research at the University of Washington/Seattle Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

"This study suggests that fatty fish intake may lower the risk of dying from a heart attack, but lean fried fish may not confer those same benefits," says Mozaffarian. This is the first time low-fat fish, albeit fried, has been studied in this respect, he adds.

But, Dr. Charles L. Schulman, senior physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, and assistant clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, doesn't put much stock in this study. "You can't take just one study. Your health depends on everything you eat, and if you have fried fish one day, it's no big deal."

He adds a better study would compare fish diets to those with other common meal choices such as steak or roast beef. The researchers, he says, by trying to isolate one item, fail to recognize that people are not all the same. "You can substitute all sorts of things for these two [fatty fish and lean fish] and make presumptions."

The study does have its limitations, including lack of data about what types of oils were used to fry the fish, says Dr. David Siscovick professor of medicine and epidemiology, co-director of the University of Washington Cardiovascular Health Research Unit and study co-author.

But Siscovick maintains, "in contrast to intake of fatty fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, we found that intake of lean fried fish, low in omega-3 fatty acids, is not associated with a lower risk of fatal heart attack."

Future research, he suggests, should focus on death from irregular heartbeat and help to identify how diet and omega-3 supplements can help maintain heart health.

"Modest consumption of fatty fish at any age may be beneficial, " says Siscovick. "We recommend following the guidelines of the American Heart Association by including one to two servings per week of fish, particularly fatty fish, rich in omega-3 fatty acids."

Find out how to set up a nutritional program to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Read why the American Heart Association says you should put more fish in your diet.

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