▾ Maxepa - eskimos, fish oils and ischaemic heart disease

• Published in: Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMJ 1988
• Subjects: Greenland; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/dtb.26.22.85; https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1136/dtb.26.22.85

Greenland eskimos eat as much fat as North Americans, but a far greater proportion of it contains unsaturated fatty acids from marine food and they have less ischaemie heart disease (IHD) than North Americans. 1,2 Some, 3,4 but not all epidemiological studies, 5,6 suggest that eating fish regularly reduces mortality from IHD independently of other risk factors. In one study, 3 deaths from IHD were 50% lower amongst those who ate 30g per day (equivalent to eating fish twice a week) than amongst those who ate none. Increasing consumption above this gave no additional benefit.