Cooked right, fish does a heart good

Baked, broiled or deep-fried -- how you take your fish might affect how well your heart performs.

Seniors who ate tuna or other broiled or baked fish from one to four times a week had a 28% lower risk of developing an irregular heartbeat than those who ate fish less than once a month, according to a recent study.

“We do need to eat fish regularly because we can get a lot of benefits in terms of cardiovascular disease prevention,” said Dr. Ka He, an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. “But also we should pay attention to the cooking process or types of fish.”

Atrial fibrillation is a heart problem in which the two upper chambers twitch instead of beating properly. This can cause blood to collect in the heart, sometimes leading to blood clots and strokes. The condition affects about 2.2 million Americans.

People who ate healthfully prepared fish five or more times a week lowered their risk of developing atrial fibrillation by about one-third. Eating fried fish or fish sandwiches did not reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation, the study found.

Researchers said the benefit to the heart might come from omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, such as salmon and tuna, that are commonly broiled or baked.

Beginning in 1989, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University, the University of Washington and Wake Forest University studied the eating habits of 4,815 people older than 65. Over 12 years, 980 of the participants were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Researchers did not know whether the participants’ eating habits changed over time or how many years they had been eating fish, both of which could affect the outcome of the study.

The study was published July 19 in the online version of the journal Circulation.