Benefits of eating fish tip the scale

Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 13:30 in Health & Medicine

Although research has shown that eating fish, which is rich in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, mixed evidence from prior studies has suggested that mercury exposure from fish consumption may be linked to higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. In a new, large-scale study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), researchers found no evidence that higher levels of mercury exposure were associated with higher risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, or total cardiovascular disease in two separate studies of U.S. adults. The research appears in the March 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. “Prior studies have been relatively small and [have] shown mixed results. This large analysis from two separate studies provides the most robust evidence to date on whether mercury exposure affects cardiovascular disease,” said lead author Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor in the Department...

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