Vol. 018–Most People Think They Don't Consume Trans fats, Here's Why You're Wrong

1 oz of water to garden your health

2 Tools for growth

1 Cool Product

Random Musings

Reading Time: 2 minutes and 35 seconds

Action to water your health

Trans fats (aka partially hydrogenated oils) are horrible for you in every known possible way. 

They increase, cause or worsen:

• Heart disease (raises bad cholesterol and lower good)

• Stroke

• Systemic inflammation

• Resistance to insulin (↑ diabetes risk)

• Weight gain

• Breast Cancer in postmenopausal women.

• Preeclampsia

Most of us are savvy and avoid trans fats. And I thought I did too until I had covid and needed cough medicine. Let me explain. 

When you're sick, the last thing you care about is the inactive ingredients in the medication you need to take to get better. So I bought this cough syrup (ingredients above). Tasted awful and syrupy like most.

Working in medicine I wanted to make sure that dextromethorphan (cough suppressant) was the active ingredient. It was, great! I went ahead and looked at the inactive ingredients too. Partially hydrogenized vegetable oil was one of the ingredients. But why? 

Some medications require excipients, they act as the carrier (vehicle or basis) or as a component of the carrier of the active substance. And, in so doing, contribute to product attributes such as stability, biopharmaceutical profile, appearance, and the ease with which the product can be manufactured.

Let's take thyroid medication (levothyroxine), the dosage used is micrograms (super tiny). It's impossible to manufacture tablets with just this product. So pharmaceutical companies use excipients in combination with the active ingredient to deliver the medication. 

Inactive ingredients may also be referred to as inert ingredients or excipients, and generally have no pharmacological effect. Well, that may not always be the case, and performing studies to verify that is difficult. 

Roulaz et al. discuss the pediatric population and how "the scientific literature shows that excipients commonly used in adult medicines have been associated with high toxicological risks and safety problems in children." 

Comparing US Cough Syrup to Europe

Ok, let's compare two cough syrups with the same active ingredients (dextromethorphan). US version has partially hydrogenated vegetable oil while the UK DOES NOT for their excipients. 

Confusing isn't it? I'm sure you've seen this trend often, US vs Europe in comparison to the difference in ingredients used in their products. This has to do with the regulating agencies. If you want to read the UK's cough syrup ingredients in depth here ya go. 

OK, so what should we do? Not all cough syrups have partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Start looking at the labels like you do food ingredients.  👀

Tools for growth

Krisp: Uses artificial intelligence to remove background noises and echoes from meetings. This article is a great read, it goes over how the Chief Scientist fired up a prototype of their noise-cancellation technology in six months! The science and funding beyond it is impressive.

Sleepagotchi: For you web3 people out there. This website rewards users for keeping a consistent sleep schedule with NFTs and crypto tokens. You enter your target wake-up time hit goals and get NFTs and crypto tokens. Uses biocompatible sleep devices to keep track. I'm always reading, compiling, and collecting everything sleep-related (this one is interesting).

Cool Product

Everyday backpack by Wingback: This is not your regular backpack. Its design was made by customer feedback, rugged and elegant. It's $$$ but doubt you'll ever need another backpack again.  

Random Musings

Recommendmeabook: How often do you judge a book by its cover or customer reviews? without actually reading the first couple of pages. This website hides all the information about the book. You read through random pages and if you like it you can uncover the book! 

This is a great way to discover new books.

You're an awesome human

Martin, CEO of braincrumbss

PS. Currently working on 21-day sleep course. If you want to be the first to know. Email me for info. It will give you the tools to get sleep better, longer, or faster.