While the name doesn’t sound particularly healthy, fatty fish have several health benefits when included in a balanced diet, and are great for active senior living. Most people realize that fatty fish, which contain omega-3 fatty acids, are good for heart health, yet most people are unaware of its benefits for arthritis. Omega-3s, a type of unsaturated fatty acid found in abundance in fatty fish, have been shown to reduce inflammation, a main culprit of arthritic pain.
A long-term study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet followed more than 32,000 middle-aged Swedish women for several years and found a correlation between lowered risk of rheumatoid arthritis and increased consumption of fatty fish: Women who ate at least one serving of fatty fish each week over a 10-year period were more than 50 percent less likely to have developed rheumatoid arthritis than other women.
According to Dr. Alicja Wolk, a professor of Nutritional Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet and one of the study’s main authors, this study provides a good argument for following experts’ recommendations of eating two servings per week of shellfish or other seafood.
While the study’s findings might only be particular to middle-aged women from Northern European ancestry, the results were still quite prominent and make a good case for eating seafood to potentially lower your risk of rheumatoid arthritis, especially if you’re a middle-aged woman. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory joint disorder that causes painful swelling of the lining of the joints in the knees, fingers, wrists and other areas. It can occur at any age, though women older than 40 are the most likely to be affected, and it also causes morning stiffness and bone erosion.
