Medical science researchers say they have new insights into what causes hearts to go suddenly out of rhythm, resulting in the deaths of some 300,000 Americans every year. Their insights were announced Thursday, but three years ago, alternative medicine science researchers said they had found a way to prevent it.

Called ventricular fibrillation the disease is responsible for most cardiac deaths and can affect people of every age.

Deaths occur when a violent "storm" of electrical activity occurs in a person's heart muscle so suddenly that it causes the heart to stop beating.

The group of medical science researchers will publish their findings in the Dec. 26 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to a statement on Thursday, the group said it had discovered that ongoing research in animals did apply to humans.

That discovery is "most important because it erases previous concerns in science about the relevance of studies in small animals like mice to understanding the most lethal cardiac arrhythmia in people," says senior author José Jalife, M.D.

He describes the electrical storm of ventricular fibrillation "as a hurricane or tornado that disrupts the regular rhythm of the heart's electrical activity."

While medical science is moving a step forward to understanding how ventricular fibrillation occurs, alternative medicine science researchers, also using small animals in research, announced in December 2004 that they had found a way to protect against ventricular fibrillation happening.

Using rabbits for research, the scientists studied the biochemical and molecular actions of nutrients on ventricular fibrillation. Their finding that dietary flaxseed protects from ventricular fibrillation was published in the December 2004 journal The American Society for Nutritional Sciences.

Flaxseed can be found milled, ground or in liquid form. Some people sprinkle milled flaxseed over their breakfast cereal instead of sugar, it can be used on salads and in many other ways.