Science - September 2, 2004
Heart takes little notice of oily fish
The fatty acids in fish have little influence on the heart rhythm, at least not in healthy people and not in people who only have mild heart rhythm disturbances. Anouk Geelen devoted her PhD research to the matter in the sub-department of Human Nutrition.
Geelen is not prepared to say that fish fatty acids do not work. ‘There are still a number of big experiments running,’ she says. ‘Only when they are completed will we be able to say something about fish fatty acids.’ Nevertheless, the PhD student is not frustrated by her lack of results after four years. ‘That’s how it goes in the sciences,’ she adds. ‘Each research project is one piece of a bigger puzzle, and when you put a lot of pieces next to each other you get the bigger picture. And it’s still not certain whether we will have the bigger picture even when the big experiments are finished.’ /WK