Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. The researchers found that compared with women who did not eat fatty fish, those who ate less than 1 serving of fatty fish per week had a 14% decreased risk for heart failure, those who ate 1 serving/week had a 20% reduced risk and those who ate 2 servings/week had a 30% reduced risk).
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is defined as “an imbalance in pump function in which the heart fails to maintain the circulation of blood adequately.” It affects more than 3 million people worldwide. With 400,000 new patients a year, CHF remains the most common diagnosis among hospitalized patients older than 65 years (1) and costs our healthcare system nearly $30 billion each year (2). Now a new study (3) has found a supporting role of omega-3 fats in heart failure.
In the study, 36, 324 women aged 48 to 83 participating in the Swedish Mammography Cohort (4) aged 48–83 years completed a 96-item food-frequency questionnaire. The researchers found that compared with women who did not eat fatty fish, those who ate less than 1 serving of fatty fish per week had a 14% decreased risk for heart failure, those who ate 1 serving/week had a 20% reduced risk and those who ate 2 servings/week had a 30% reduced risk). When they looked at total omega-3 fatty acid intake (that also included supplementation), those with the highest 20% of intake (570 mg/day) had a 25% reduced risk of heart failure compared to those with the lowest 20% of intake (140 mg/day).
A conflicting finding in the study was that consuming 3 or more servings of fatty fish per week only reduced heart failure risk by 9%. The researchers attributed this to the fact that only 3% of the population were in this consumption demographic (resulting in a small sample size) but were also older and heavier, more likely to have a history of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and consumed more sodium and more red and processed meat. As for the demographics of the other serving groups, 12% of the women did not consume fatty fish, 25% ate less than 1 serving per week, 44% ate 1 serving per week, and 17% ate 2 servings per week.
Nevertheless, they concluded that “moderate consumption of fatty fish (1–2 servings per week) and marine omega-3 fatty acids were associated with a lower rate of first HF hospitalization or death in this population.” Since other factors were used to explain the lower results for those consuming three or more servings per week, further research is needed to account for these factors or conduct controlled research.
Source: Levitan, Emily B., Alicja Wolk, and Murray A. Mittleman. “Fatty fish, marine omega-3 fatty acids, and incidence of heart failure.” European journal of clinical nutrition 64.6 (2010): 587.
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited
Posted May 4, 2010.
References:
- “Congestive Heart Failure” posted on emedicine.com April 15, 2005
- A Report From the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2006 Update. Circulation 2006;113:e85-e151
- Levitan EB. Fatty fish, marine omega-3 fatty acids and incidence of heart failure. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 24 March 2010; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2010.50.
- Wolk A. Long-term fatty fish consumption and renal cell carcinoma incidence in women. JAMA 2006; 296: 1371–1376.
