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Fish benefits outweigh mercury concerns

It may be a red herring to worry over whether people who eat lots of fish may lose whatever heart benefits they might have gained because of an increased exposure to mercury, a new study shows.

The scientists studied more than 900 Swedish men and women who answered questionnaires about the amount of fish in their diet. The researchers also analysed the subjects' red blood cells for levels of mercury and selenium.

Mercury levels were generally low by Scandinavian standards, the Swedish team found. But people whose red blood cells showed elevated amounts of mercury did not have a higher risk of cardiac problems.

In other words, "the protective nutrients in fish override any harmful effect of mercury at these low levels of mercury," says Maria Wennberg, a public health researcher at Umea University and a member of the study team.

The American Heart Association recommends that people consume at least two servings of fish a week. Salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna are particularly high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Questioning the findings

One expert questioned the findings, which appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Dr David O. Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, in Rensselaer, New York, said the Swedish researchers assumed that the mercury in the subjects' blood cells came from fish.

"That's just not a legitimate conclusion," said Carpenter. He noted that many other sources of environmental mercury, including coal-fired power plants and dental fillings, might account for the presence of the element.

What's more, he said, fish in the Baltic Sea, which borders Sweden, are high in other toxic compounds such as PCBs, which complicates the picture.

"The fact that you don't have a significant effect (on heart risks) with measured levels of omega-3 fatty acids, and no effect of fish consumption, says to me that this study is totally inconclusive," Carpenter said.

Although they found no association between the amount of fish the study subjects reported eating every month or their blood levels of two omega-3 fatty acids and their risk of heart disease or stroke, that likely reflects the drawbacks of relying on subjects' memory rather than a real effect, they said.

Restrictions

Wennberg cautioned that her study "does not discard the need of restrictions in consumption of fish high in mercury" - species including predators such as perch, shark, swordfish and halibut.

The FDA, for example, advises women who are pregnant or who might become pregnant to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tile fish because of their high mercury content. The agency says these women can safely eat up to six ounces a week of canned albacore (white) tuna, although it has more mercury than canned light tuna.

The study did raise one potential red flag: people whose red blood cells had elevated traces of selenium appeared to be at increased risk of sudden cardiac death. The number of such cases was small, however, so the researchers called for more investigation into the possible link.

(Reuters Health, Adam Marcus, November 2010)

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