Grilled and baked fish lowers risk of strokes

Eating fish may help lower the risk of cognitive decline and strokes in healthy older adults, with the benefits apparently restricted to fish that is grilled or baked, rather than fried.

A study published in the journal, Neurology, consisted of 3,660 people aged 65 and over, who had brain scans to detect small lesions in the brain that could cause a loss of thinking skills or lead to strokes or dementia.

Scans were performed again five years later on participants and they were asked about fish in their diets.

The study found that people who ate grilled or baked tuna and other fish three times or more a week had nearly 26% lower risk of having the silent brain lesions, compared to the participants who did not eat fish regularly.

Even eating one serving of this fish a week led to a 13% lower risk of the lesions.

Dr Jyrki Virtanen, of the University of Kuopio in Finland, said that “while eating tuna and other types of fish seems to help protect against memory loss and stroke, these results were not found in people who regularly ate fried fish.

“Previous findings have shown that fish and fish oil can help prevent stroke, but this is one of the only studies that looks at fish’s effect on silent brain lesions in healthy, older people”.