Written by Patrick Massey, M.D., Ph.D. Researchers have found that people who eat at least one serving of fish per week have a much lower incidence of stroke, compared to those who do not eat fish.
In past articles, I have mentioned the many health benefits of fish oil and specifically omega-3 fats. This in not “breaking” news since the potential health benefits of omega-3 fats have been discussed for several decades. The first real recommendations I ever read were from Andrew Weil MD in his discussions of the advantages of the Mediterranean diet.
I was first introduced to omega-3 fats by my Mother. She got me hooked on a British snack consisting of sardines on toast. Sardines are a very oily fish that are rich in a number of omega-3 fats. I found it to be delicious and often took it to school for lunch. My friends, however, found it to be a very strange sandwich and as hard as I tried, I could not convince them to try it.
Originally, the benefits of omega-3 fats was discovered by accident. It was found that people who had a diet rich in omega-3 fats, primarily as north Atlantic fish, had a much lower incidence of heart disease and stroke. In contrast, average American diet only has small amounts of omega-3 fats. It could even be said that our diet, rich in fried foods and red meat, is a good example of what not to eat since it actually promotes heart disease and stroke!
The relationship between stroke and fish oil consumption was discussed in a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors took a number of people and asked them about their consumption of fish. Then they followed them over a period of years and then looked at the rates of stroke. The results were highly significant! Those who ate fish, even one serving per week, had a much lower incidence of stroke when compared to those who did not eat fish. The benefit of eating fish was similar to taking one aspirin per day-without the risks associated with chronic aspirin use.
There are two types of stroke. One involves blood clots that block the flow of blood to the brain, called ischemic stroke. It is by far the most common type of stroke and was significantly reduced with fish consumption. The other type of stroke involves the breaking of blood vessels and bleeding into the brain…a hemorrhagic stroke. It is much less common. Fish oil had no benefit in preventing this type of stroke…but neither does aspirin.
This study is important for a number of reasons. It defines, in terms easily understood by physicians, the effects of diet in the disease process. It also demonstrates that food can be a first-line defense in the prevention of disease. For example, we have endorsed the benefits of a daily aspirin, recognizing that the risk of it’s use (including death) were far outweighed by the potential benefits. In this study, except for getting a bad piece of fish, there are no definable risks-only benefits.
For those of you who do not like the taste of fish, there are options. Fish oils capsules are available. There is even flavored cod liver oil, if you cannot swallow capsules. Either way, prevention is the key to health. Mom, thanks for adding omega-3 oil to my diet when I was young…I still like sardines on toast.
Posted November 19, 2008.
