Re: debate

 Re: study #1 - AA and arrhythmia (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20435853 )

There is probably something wrong, either with their conclusion or with other studies of similar kind.

The same could be said about the study your friend supplied.  Especially since it does not take in to account other factors such as the high level of anti-inflammatory herbs the Chinese consume.

There must exist a state of disagreement among scientists regarding the role of AA in arrhythmia.

Arrhythmias are primarily caused by lack of blood flow to the heart setting up ectopic pacemakers that cause the arrhythmia.   So it is very easy to manipulate studies claiming AA has no effect on arrhythmias since it still takes a great deal of time for the AA induced inflammation to create enough plaque to induce the arrhythmias.

Other studies using real animals (not in-vitro) showed the opposite effect, such as this:

Effects of arachidonic, linoleic, linolenic and oleic acid on experimental arrhythmias in cats, rabbits and guinea-pigs

You need to post the actual abstract, not just the title so it can be reviewed.

I am not sure which is correct, but since the wiki article does point out that AA plays multiple role in many processes, thus multiple, even contrary outcomes aren't surprizing.

(I will reply about the second paper later)