Fish consumption and coronary artery disease in China.

Abstract

To the Editor: As Dallongeville et al1 indicated in the introduction of their article, it has been well established that fish consumption has a protective cardiovascular effect. To the existing theories of this association, the authors added another: fish consumption is associated with decreased heart rate and thus lower risk of sudden death because heart rate is positively associated with risk of sudden death. The protective effect of fish consumption on coronary artery disease was known in China nearly four decades ago. In an epidemiological study on the regional differences in incidence of coronary artery disease in people over 40 years of age in China, which was carried out by the Cardiovascular Institute, Fu Wai Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China, it was noted that the lowest incidence of coronary artery disease (0.6%) was in the fishermen in Choushan archipelago (Table).2 View this table: Regional Differences …