Fish for Longevity

Fish contains heart-healthy protein and fatty acids, and the American Heart Association recommends eating two 3.5-ounce servings of fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, herring, lake trout and albacore tuna, each week.  Dariush Mozaffarian, from the Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues studied 2,692 American adults, average age 74 years, who did not have  without prevalent coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or heart failure at the study’s start.  The team measured phospholipid fatty acid levels and cardiovascular risk factors in 1992, and monitored relationships with total and cause-specific mortality and incident fatal or nonfatal CHD and stroke through 2008.  The researchers found those subjects with the highest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids -- lived more than two years longer on average than those with lower blood levels.  Specifically, the data revealed that people with the highest levels of omega-3s reduced their overall risk of death from any cause by up to 27%, as compared to those with the lowest levels; as well, they were at a 35% lower risk of dying from heart disease.  The study authors conclude that: “Higher circulating individual and total [omega]3-[polyunsaturated fatty acid] levels are associated with lower total mortality, especially [coronary heart disease] death, in older adults.”