A recent study has demonstrated that eating just one reasonable sized portion of a fatty fish such as salmon, sardines or mackerel, or four portions of lean fish such as cod and tuna, each week could reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis developing in women. Fish is rich in omega-3-polyunsatured fatty acids (PUFAs) and is an essential component because it cannot be manufactured by the human body. Dietary intake is also claimed to be associated with a reduction in a number of disease states (ref. supplied). One portion of fatty fish or four portions of so called lean fish provides about 0.21 grams/day and the level is significant in this study. The American Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommends people eat some form of seafood, such that they receive an average daily intake of 250 mg of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease afflicting middle-aged and elderly women, but starts generally in adulthood causing inflammation in the joints of fingers, legs and wrists. The recent statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the United States are staggering, with nearly 50 million adults enduring arthritis of different sorts and the number is set to rise by 2030 to 67 million US citizens with this disease. In England and Wales, the condition affects nearly 600,000 women
The Study
The study, conducted at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden sent questionnaires to women in 1987 and 1990 who had actively participated in The Swedish Mammography Cohort Study. All were demographically born between 1914 and 1948 and were asked for information on various of aspects of life-style, diet, weight and height, and education. A follow-up questionnaire was then sent in 1997 to about 56,000 women to obtain more detail on habits such as level of physical exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking, and use of dietary supplements and aspirin. A part of the dietary information requested included a food frequency questionnaire covering a range of foods, 67 foods in 1987 and expanded to 96 foods in 1997. The data was analysed using classic Cox proportional hazard regression models.
Data from 32,000 women who were routinely monitored between 2003 and 2010 showed 205 with rheumatoid arthritis. The study also showed that those who consumed the highest amount of PUFAs had a four times higher intake than those with the lowest intake. Of the women in the study who had arthritis, 27% had a dietary PUFAs intake of less than 0.21 grams/day. Those women consuming over 0.21g/day in both 1987 and 1997 had a 52% lower risk of developing the condition based on a 95% confidence interval. On top of this, eating more than one serving of all types of fish every week for a minimum of ten years was associated with a 29% reduced risk of arthritis compared to eating less than one portion every week. No conclusion was made however linking ingestion of omega-3 supplements and a decrease in arthritis, any links reported were firmly associated with eating fish.
Reference
Di Giuseppe, D., Wallin, A., Bottai, M., Askling, J. Wolk, A. (2013) Long-term intake of dietary long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective cohort study of women. Ann. Rheum. Dis. doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-203338.
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