A long-term study reveals that eating fish once a month or more is enough to significantly reduce the risk of stroke.

Previous research has suggested that making fish a regular part of your diet could be a good way of reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health now add to the evidence that fish is good for you.

The new report comes from the Professional Follow-up Study which covers nearly 44,000 men monitored for 12 years, and questioned on their dietary habits. Over the time of the study, 608 participants had strokes - 377 of which were ischemic strokes, caused by blood clots, and 106 had hemorrhagic strokes, caused by bleeding. The remainder of the strokes could not be clinically classified.

The data revealed how eating fish once a month or more reduced the risk of stroke by 44 per cent, compared to those who ate fish less often. Eating fish five times a week or more decreased the risk by 46 per cent. The connection was seen only for ischemic stroke, not hemorrhagic strokes. It's intriguing that such a small amount of fish consumption can decrease the risk of stroke so significantly. Unless you detest fish, it should be easy enough to make salmon or mackerel the mainstay of your meal a couple of times a month to get the benefits.

Source

Journal of the American Medical Association 25th December 2002