Eating fish and taking marine omega-3 fatty acid supplements may help lower risk of heart failure (HF), according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Luc Djoussé of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA and colleagues conducted the study and found risk of heart failure was 40 to 50 percent lower in those who ate fish more often than once a month or had high intake of plasma phospholipid ALA.
For the study, researchers analysed data from a case-control study of 1572 subjects and a prospective cohort study of 19,097 participants to examine the relationship between omega-3 fatty acids and incidence of heart failure. Subjects were at a mean age of 58.7 years at the blood collection.
Serum α-linolenic acid (ALA) was found associated with a lower risk of heart failure and the lowest risk was found in those in the highest quintile of this fatty acid in the blood.
However, serum omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were not associated with heart failure while serum docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) was inversely, but nonlinearly associated with heart failure with a 45 percent reduction in those in the quintile 2 of serum DPA.
Overall, intake of marine omega-3 fatty acids was associated with lower risk of heart failure. A 19 percent reduction in heart failure risk was found in those whose intake of dietary marine n−3 fatty acids was in the highest quintile.
Specifically, those who ate fish more often than once a month were at 30 percent reduced risk of heart failure.
The researchers concluded "Our data are consistent with an inverse and nonlinear relation of plasma phospholipid ALA and DPA, but not EPA or DHA, with HF risk. Fish consumption greater than once per month was associated with a lower HF risk."
