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A study of 22,000 men has found the higher the level of fish fats in men's bloodstreams, the lower their chances of suddenly dropping dead of a heart attack. Eat your fish, boys. That's the message from a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. A research group in Boston has been following the health of over 22,000 physicians in a study that started 20 years ago. The original intention was to assess the benefits of daily aspirin in preventing coronary heart disease. In doing that, they obviously had to assess all sorts of other factors in relation to these men — one of which was diet, including how much fish you eat, because there's a fair bit of evidence of a significantly lower rate of heart disease in fish eaters. The reasons are thought to be that when you're eating fish, you're not munching on red meat, and secondly, the omega 3 fatty acids in some fishes. The focus of this study was men who had died suddenly of a heart attack. When compared to men who didn't, they were more likely to have had high blood pressure, a family history of early heart disease, and not to be moderate drinkers. Smokers had lower blood levels of the omega 3 fatty acids. After statistically controlling for all this, the higher the level of fish fats in men's bloodstreams, the lower their chances of suddenly dropping dead of a heart attack. In fact, men with the highest levels of fish fats had a 90 per cent reduction in risk. The practical advice from this should be for at least two fish meals per week.
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