October 6, 2012 — Eating fish from time to time may reduce risk of stroke, particularly ischemic stroke, according to a new study in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
P Xun of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC and colleagues conducted the study and found people eating fish 5 times a week, compared with those eating fish less than once a month was associated with 13 percent reduced risk of stroke.
Included in the study were 16 cohort studies, found in databases MEDLINE and EMBASE, of 402,127 individuals with 10,568 incident cases of stroke who were followed up for an average of 12.8 years.
Compared with those who never ate or ate fish less than once per month, those who ate 1 to 3 times per month, once per week, 2 to 4 times per wee, and 5 times per week were at 3 percent, 14 percent, 9 percent and 13 percent reduced risk for stroke, respectively.
The association varied from location to location. An inverse association between fish consumption and stroke incidence was found in studies conducted only in North America. The modest inverse associations were stronger for ischemic stroke than hemorrhagic stroke.