• Dharma Curious (he/him) ( dharmacurious@slrpnk.net ) English
    54·
    1 year ago

    So, I’m sure this is a bad idea. But can anyone tell me exactly why? Years ago, in a desperate situation, a doctor told us to get antibiotics for fish and use them, and we had to do that a few times. Some animal products are identical or nearly identical to human products, some are quite different…

    With this in particular, how is it different, and why is it bad?

    • H4rdStyl3z ( H4rdStyl3z@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English
      70·
      1 year ago

      Chubbyemu explains it best: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=ifXH86-eIqk

      But basically, the electrolyte balance that’s healthy for a horse is quite a lot higher than what is healthy for a human (due to body mass differences, among other things). The magnesium in the horse electrolyte is actually over the lethal dose for a human if taken as written. You could theoretically take it and be fine if you calculate the proper dose yourself, but by that point you’re better off just buying human products, I guess.

      EDIT: I was thinking of manganese, not magnesium, but that’s 1500% of the daily intake, not necessarily lethal dose. Sodium, though, is over the lethal dose.

    • Viking_Hippie ( Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
      12·
      1 year ago

      So, I’m sure this is a bad idea. But can anyone tell me exactly why?

      With this in particular, how is it different, and why is it bad?

      This is how to use what our parents called the information superhighway responsibly right here. Well done Sir/Ma’am/other 🫡

  • 4grams ( 4grams@awful.systems ) English
    21·
    1 year ago

    One of my family members got into the “blue-green algae” fad (about 5 years after it fell out of mainstream). It was too expensive so they bought the horse algae from veterinarian supply. He said it was exactly the same, as long as you could put up with the grit.

    These people exist (and I’m related to them).

    • Korhaka ( Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ) English
      10·
      1 year ago

      My axolotl tank used to grow a lot of blue-green algae (which is actually cyanobacteria), how much money was I missing out on by not bagging it up to sell?

    • stray ( stray@pawb.social ) English
      1·
      1 year ago

      As a kid I used to buy mineral salt licks for my mice, but I’d secretly keep one for myself as a snack.

      Chicken bullion cubes and pickle water are also the shit.

      • TigerAce ( TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
        18·
        1 year ago

        Like it states in the fact check article, it can be toxic for humans.

        Horses are herbivores, humans omnovores. The stomachs of horses are different to ours. That means there could be certain ingredients which were prepared differently for horses so they are toxic for us, as we lack the ability to digest it the same way as a horse. Like soy for example. The soy used for animal food is toxic for us. The soy used for human consumption is different, of a much higher quality. We can’t digest all soy types properly while herbivores can.

        Another example: horses can eat everything they eat raw. We humans can’t. We need to cook many things otherwise they are toxic (like eggplant) or they are very hard to digest. Horses can eat grass, we really shouldn’t because we can’t digest it properly.

        Conclusion: don’t use products made for animals (food and medicine) even though the ingredients might look safe while they can still be toxic due to different quality or preparation. Except dog and cat food in the US. Both of those are also safe for humans, as people during crisis or extreme poor people tend to eat that so both of those are also brought to FDA standards. But yes, as a European I can agree with you those standards are complete shit. Many FDA safe foods in the US are considered toxic here and aren’t allowed on our market.

        • Aljernon ( Aljernon@lemmy.today ) English
          7·
          1 year ago

          I’m guessing anything that provides electrolytes to horses probably has an absurb amount of potassium in it which is usually only put into human drinks in limited amounts cause it can be lethal. I read a story of some dude who drank 8 coconut waters while playing basketball, passed out, and his blood pressure at the ER was 65 over 40.

        • Cataphract ( Cataphract@lemmy.ml ) English
          6·
          1 year ago

          So what you’re telling me is that being tricked into eating a dog treat really isn’t that big of a deal and in fact! relates to the poverty stricken parts of society and the struggles of class warfare so they really just need to get over the whole incident?

          • TigerAce ( TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
            2·
            1 year ago

            I said the article states it “can” be toxic.

            The article:

            A nutritionist told Lead Stories that people should not take animal supplements or medications without medical advice since the products could be toxic for humans.

            So indeed it did not state it “is” toxic, nor did I claim it to be.

            It’s electrolytes dissolved in water. They’re not adding anything dangerous to that.

            Can you support your claim? Do you have the listed ingredients?

            Also, what electrolytes were used? Do you know what they are?

            Wikipedia:

            An electrolyte is a substance that conducts electricity through the movement of ions, but not through the movement of electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases, dissolved in a polar solvent like water.

            Not all salts, acids and bases are safe for human consumption while they could be for horses.

              • AnimalsDream ( AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net ) English
                3·
                1 year ago

                My three biggest skepticisms with taking horse electrolytes:

                1. I would be suspicious of the quality and food-safety (ie., cleanliness) of the product. I have seen leaked videos of feed for animals being full of discarded plastic products. Products for them do tend to be of lower quality.

                2. These ingredients are all just mixed together right? If it’s formulated for a horse, you’re not realistically going to be able to find an ideal dose for yourself because the ratios of ingredients are already set, and they’re not going to match human daily values. To get a safe dose you would have to keep it low enough to ensure none of the ingredients are approaching toxic limits, by which point you’re probably getting negligible amounts of the other ingredients.

                3. Just why? In general you are best off getting your nutrients from food, real, whole food. The only two ingredients I see there that I tend to “supplement” is sodium and potassium - sodium as iodized salt because iodine is hard to get through diet alone; and potassium because mixing a 50/50 or even 75/25 ratio of potassium to salt is a good way to balance out the hypertensive and artery hardening properties of sodium with an electrolyte that reduces blood pressure, as well as being a convenient way to get potassium. Neither of those things are very expensive.

              • TigerAce ( TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
                3·
                1 year ago

                Common edible salt, sodium chloride, is properly cleaned for human consumption, this often isn’t the case for animal use. So there can be a lot of dangerous other stuff in there, like heavy metals. Again you list “salt”. What salt? Sodium chloride, potassium chloride, or something else? You know how many salts there are?

                You know how fast we can get too much iron? Supplementing iron is something you should only do when your doctor tells you to. Too much calcium is also bad for your bones (become brittle). This can already happen when you drink milk on a daily basis. I don’t know about the rest, but there’s a chance it’s similarly dangerous to randomly supplement those too.

                If you want cheap electrolytes, buy ORS. Or make your own ORS mix, you can find online how to make it (plain kitchen salt or several salts if you’re fancy, and sugar, in water).

  • Endymion_Mallorn ( Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org ) 
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’ve personally been drinking GFuel. It tastes better than gatorade and does more for me overall. I will say, there’s no real “benefit” to branded electrolyte drinks in my experience. It’s not hard to get a flavor syrup of your choosing and a flavorless bulk electrolyte powder (human-grade / food-grade), and mix the drink yourself.

    That’s the most damning thing about this to me. While there’s an update that points out his worst conspiracy theories, I can’t say he’s wrong on every level. Gatorade is currently a PepsiCo product (from when they bought Quaker, who bought that part of Van Camp when the rest went to ConAgra). It’s far removed from the college drink made by chem nerds for their jock friends. You don’t need to support PepsiCo as a consumer. You can get the same stuff and make your own drinks for less money and generally supporting smaller companies closer to the production phase of the supply chain.

    Just please don’t use animal feed to do it, unless you very specifically know what you’re doing.