Oxidation or a raw impurity. Lots of people say "Just" oxidized, or "oxidation" is normal. I call bullshit. Oxidation can break down the AAS or the solvents, or the carrier oil compounds into derivative oxidized compounds, each with its own risk profile. None of which are likely to kill us, but discussions suggest can cause systemic inflamation, iflated blood C-Reactive Protein, premature agining. All whilst many of us inject anti-oxidants such as Glutathione to try to reduce oxidative stress.
Whilst im sure there is a truth to "oxidation is normal". When i see some seriously gritty bright yellow looking stale piss out here over the last month, i question at what level is it "just oxidation".
Your question "Is this TOO oxidized?" seems a good question.
I think the answers of "test it" and "just send it" are bullshit as we don't know what the impurities are.
Best piece of advice i've seen so far was from
@Ghoul who suggested getting a sensitive CRP bloods baseline and adding to routine testing. Think this is a common sense approach if shooting any oil that you have doubts about.
My uninformed rant over.
Oxidation is essentially the process of burning. A reactive form of oxygen contacts something and oxidizes, “burns” it.
I used to think oxidized oil wasn’t a good sign, but since the reaction already occurred (ie, something already reacted with an oxidant and was therefore “oxidized”) there wasn’t much risk.
That was incorrect.
I’ll describe ONE process injecting oxidized liquid triggers, called a “cascade”. There are many more than this.
Oxidation creates byproducts called peroxides. In oils, these are created in very high levels, and what we associate with “rancid” oils.
The body fights infections with inflammation, essentially “oxidizing” cells to destroy them.
Unfortunately this destroys “off target” good tissue as well.
When you inject peroxides, the liver interprets their presence as a sign you’re fighting some major infection somewhere. In response, it creates large amounts of what are basically, molecular factories that produce reactive oxygen. Reactive oxygen oxidizes / burns / damages on contact.
Much of this ends up in your circulatory system, and fries the endothelium (the non stick layer of your arteries). The damaged endothelium allows cholesterol to easily pass through into your arterial walls. Once there, it’ll eventually reach a concentration where it “crystallizes” like high concentration sugar in hot water as it cools.
Those crystals slice up the tissue of your arterial walls, making them even more susceptible to cholesterol entering, and the micro injuries trigger another inflammatory reaction…… and on and on this inflammatory cascade goes, which is why everyone has a “baseline” level of inflammation, and the higher it is, the more roaming oxidants are in your body, randomly destroying cells, prematurely aging everything from your brain to your face.
HS-CRP is the measure of this process. As an infant it’s near zero. A 20 yo elite athlete would be under 0.5. It rises with age and accumulated damage, the average 60 yo is 3.0.
I’ve had it up to 8-10 after using a yellow, oxidized oil that caused pip and occasionally a lump.
( “no issues” is a joke, referring to the phrase we see here often after someone injects trash but decides it’s ok because it didn’t put them in the hospital. )
