Issue 123 Item 5 Fish Intake Linked To Drop in CHD in Diabetic Women

A high intake of fish was associated with a lower incidence of coronary heart disease and lower total mortality among diabetic women. That, according to Dr. Frank Hu reported at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association, who also funded the study.

Other studies have shown that fish oil supplementation reduces triglycerides and improves endothelial dysfunction in diabetics. This is the first study to measure the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and total mortality in diabetic women who ingested fish and omega-3 fatty acids, said Dr. Wu of the department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.

He and his associates analyzed data from a cohort of 5,179 women with diabetes in the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study. They were aged 34-59 years and were free of diagnosed cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline in 1980.

Over 16 years of follow-up, investigators documented 338 incident cases of CHD (139 CHD deaths and 199 nonfatal myocardial infarctions) and 460 deaths due to all causes. They observed significant inverse associations between fish intake and incidence of CHD after adjusting for age.

Adjusting for risk factors, the relative risk of CHD was 0.67 for those who consumed fish one to three times per month.

Dr. Hu pointed out that limitations of the study were that it relied on self-reported data of intake and that there was no direct measurement of glycemic control. Nurses’ health study data