Blood Levels of n-3 Fatty Acids and the Risk of stroke and Coronary Heart Disease Among Japanese The Japan Public Health Center-Based(JPHC) Study

In Japan there have been a few epidemiological studies in which fish consumption(and n-3 fatty acid intake) and morbidity and/or mortality of coronary disease were studied. The results of those studies are not consistent. Some showed beneficial effects of fish, but others did not. In Japan, no there are no large-scale epidemiological studies on the relationship between blood fatty acid composition and the risk of cardiovascular death. We, therefore, conducted a nested case-control study with 209 coronary deaths and their controls(n=418) from the Japan Public Health Center-Based Study. The fatty acid composition of the total phospholipid fraction was measured by gas-chromatography. We found no significant difference in any fatty acid level. If both men and women are combined, there appears to be little influence of blood fatty acid composition on cardiovascular deaths.