Myocardial infarction in relation to mercury and fatty acids from fish: a risk-benefit analysis based on pooled Finnish and Swedish data in men
(2012) In American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 96(4). p.706-713- Abstract
- Background: Exposure to methylmercury from fish has been associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in some studies. At the same time, marine n-3 (omega-3) PUFAs are an inherent constituent of fish and are regarded as beneficial. To our knowledge, no risk-benefit model on the basis of data on methylmercury, PUFA, and MI risk has yet been presented. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe how exposure to both marine n-3 PUFAs and methylmercury relates to MI risk by using data from Finland and Sweden. Design: We used matched case-control sets from Sweden and Finland that were nested in population-based, prospective cohort studies. We included 361 men with MI from Sweden and 211 men with MI from Finland. MI... (More)
- Background: Exposure to methylmercury from fish has been associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in some studies. At the same time, marine n-3 (omega-3) PUFAs are an inherent constituent of fish and are regarded as beneficial. To our knowledge, no risk-benefit model on the basis of data on methylmercury, PUFA, and MI risk has yet been presented. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe how exposure to both marine n-3 PUFAs and methylmercury relates to MI risk by using data from Finland and Sweden. Design: We used matched case-control sets from Sweden and Finland that were nested in population-based, prospective cohort studies. We included 361 men with MI from Sweden and 211 men with MI from Finland. MI risk was estimated in a logistic regression model with the amount of mercury in hair (hair-Hg) and concentrations of n-3 PUFAs (EPA and DHA) in serum (S-PUFA) as independent variables. Results: The median hair-Hg was 0.57 mu g/g in Swedish and 1.32 mu g/g in Finnish control subjects, whereas the percentage of S-PUFA was 4.21% and 3.83%, respectively. In combined analysis, hair-Hg was associated with higher (P = 0.005) and S-PUFA with lower (P = 0.011) MI risk. Our model indicated that even a small change in fish consumption (ie, by increasing S-PUFA by 1%) would prevent 7% of MIs, despite a small increase in mercury exposure. However, at a high hair-Hg, the modeled beneficial effect of PUFA on MI risk was counteracted by methylmercury. Conclusions: Exposure to methylmercury was associated with increased risk of MI, and higher S-PUFA concentrations were associated with decreased risk of MI. Thus, MI risk may be reduced by the consumption of fish high in PUFAs and low in methylmercury. Am J Clin Nutr 2012;96:706-13. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3189687
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2012
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- volume
- 96
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 706 - 713
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000308977000005
- scopus:84866616999
- pmid:22894940
- ISSN
- 1938-3207
- DOI
- 10.3945/ajcn.111.033795
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 92790cf2-b9be-40c3-b79d-6528b091a9cb (old id 3189687)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:21:19
- date last changed
- 2022-04-21 21:03:11
@article{92790cf2-b9be-40c3-b79d-6528b091a9cb,
abstract = {{Background: Exposure to methylmercury from fish has been associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in some studies. At the same time, marine n-3 (omega-3) PUFAs are an inherent constituent of fish and are regarded as beneficial. To our knowledge, no risk-benefit model on the basis of data on methylmercury, PUFA, and MI risk has yet been presented. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe how exposure to both marine n-3 PUFAs and methylmercury relates to MI risk by using data from Finland and Sweden. Design: We used matched case-control sets from Sweden and Finland that were nested in population-based, prospective cohort studies. We included 361 men with MI from Sweden and 211 men with MI from Finland. MI risk was estimated in a logistic regression model with the amount of mercury in hair (hair-Hg) and concentrations of n-3 PUFAs (EPA and DHA) in serum (S-PUFA) as independent variables. Results: The median hair-Hg was 0.57 mu g/g in Swedish and 1.32 mu g/g in Finnish control subjects, whereas the percentage of S-PUFA was 4.21% and 3.83%, respectively. In combined analysis, hair-Hg was associated with higher (P = 0.005) and S-PUFA with lower (P = 0.011) MI risk. Our model indicated that even a small change in fish consumption (ie, by increasing S-PUFA by 1%) would prevent 7% of MIs, despite a small increase in mercury exposure. However, at a high hair-Hg, the modeled beneficial effect of PUFA on MI risk was counteracted by methylmercury. Conclusions: Exposure to methylmercury was associated with increased risk of MI, and higher S-PUFA concentrations were associated with decreased risk of MI. Thus, MI risk may be reduced by the consumption of fish high in PUFAs and low in methylmercury. Am J Clin Nutr 2012;96:706-13.}},
author = {{Wennberg, Maria and Strömberg, Ulf and Bergdahl, Ingvar A. and Jansson, Jan-Hakan and Kauhanen, Jussi and Norberg, Margareta and Salonen, Jukka T. and Skerfving, Staffan and Tuomainen, Tomi-Pekka and Vessby, Bengt and Virtanen, Jyrki K.}},
issn = {{1938-3207}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{706--713}},
publisher = {{Oxford University Press}},
series = {{American Journal of Clinical Nutrition}},
title = {{Myocardial infarction in relation to mercury and fatty acids from fish: a risk-benefit analysis based on pooled Finnish and Swedish data in men}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.033795}},
doi = {{10.3945/ajcn.111.033795}},
volume = {{96}},
year = {{2012}},
}