Why Take MCT Oil?

Your body processes MCTs differently from the long-chain fats in your diet. Normally, a fat taken into your body must be mixed with bile released from your gallbladder and acted on by pancreatic enzymes to break it down in your digestive system.

MCTs don't need bile or pancreatic enzymes. Once they reach your intestine, they diffuse through your intestinal membrane into your bloodstream and are transported directly to your liver, which naturally converts the oil into ketones.

Your liver then releases the ketones back into your bloodstream, where they are transported throughout your body. They can even pass the blood-brain barrier to supply your brain with energy. MCTs also have a thermogenic effect, which has a positive effect on your metabolism. It is essential immediate food for the brain because of its bypassing or the liver, therefore it helps with mental energy and reduces fatigue. 

For these reasons, MCTs are readily used by your body for energy rather than being stored as fat. MCTs are also helpful for ridding your gut of harmful microorganisms like pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Like coconut oil, MCTs also have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. MCT oil (either straight MCT or coconut oil) may be consumed every day. 

I recommend taking no more than 1 teaspoon of MCT oil to start. Have it at the same time as another fat, for example, with a handful of nuts, with ghee in your coffee or as one of the oils in your salad dressing. Once your tolerance increases, you can slowly increase that amount to 4 tablespoons of MCT oil per day.

If you stop taking MCT oil for a while and then restart, begin with a small amount again to allow your digestive system to readjust. That said, MCT oil is often more easily digested by those struggling to digest other types of fat, such as those with malabsorption, leaky gut, Crohn's disease or gallbladder impairment (such as an infection or if you had your gallbladder removed).

By Dr. Mercola

Follow the link below to read the full feature on Thrive Global:

https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/12086-why-millennials-should-follow-their-dreams 

I should write about this conversation...

That was the thought going through my mind as I was speaking to Andrew Kozlovski on the phone. Andrew and I have become friends after recently becoming acquainted - he is the owner and founder of Brainz Power and has a strong presence on Instagram.

Both Andrew and I are Millennials - I'm slightly older than he, but we share similar experiences growing up in this ever-changing world of instantaneous news, evolving technology, and scientific discovery. We have also shared the experience of seeing Millennials and Post-Millennials receive blame and critique over issues we have no control over.

Which is preciously what led to us having a phone conversation about why our generation should follow their dreams. It's easy to quit on yourself when conditions are tough, but with a plethora of opportunities available - it's key that youth persevere through stress.

"I'm going to write about this conversation," I said to Andrew before asking him why he thought it was important for our generation to always pursue their dreams. "Sure, chasing your dreams will have hard times, but sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to get to where you want to be. Think about it like this if you ordered a book from Amazon in 1994 Jeff Bezos personally packed that book and shipped it to you, now 23 years later he was the richest man in the world at one point this year," Andrew began.

"Everyone starts from, zero, so don’t compare someone’s chapter 20 to your chapter 2. The best part about dream chasing is you are happy no matter how much money you are making because you are doing what makes you genuinely happy," he continued. I articulated my agreement with his sentiment.

While we all need money to pay our bills and immediate expenses; chasing money is not always a path full of happiness. Genuine happiness is something Millennials and post-Millennials have shown to care about deeply according to polls. The two generations want to be apart of a greater cause and not just attempt to grab financial wealth at the expense of their morality or sanity.

"Family, friends, society push you away from your dreams because there is a lot of risks associated with pursuing them, and they say it’s unrealistic - but they only say that because they can’t imagine doing it themselves, you should not let that reflect on you."

Andrew made that point as we continued to speak. I can personally relate as I left a secure career to follow my dreams of journalism and becoming involved in entertainment. It's been a long road, however, one of my screenplays is being reviewed by a studio producer and I'm starting to produce higher quality journalism.

If I had quit on my dreams after the first several strenuous months; I would have never accepted an offer to become the Editor-In-Chief at a new media outlet. While they worry about my finances - my parents have given their support; however, society as a whole typically balks at such decisions where risks are involved.

"I also have a personal mission to be a voice for young entrepreneurs and show them that they can go against their parent’s advice and still be successful. Everyone young is looking for permission to act, and if telling my story inspires one person to take action I will be incredibly humble," Andrew started his business at 19 and has been building it ever since.

Not only does Andrew have lofty entrepreneurial goals, he wants to get there the ethical way and is willing to work hard in order to do so, "Everything I have done thus far is “unrealistic” it’s hard enough to build a company to the size of mine, it’s even harder when you’re a full-time college student, but when your chasing your dreams it’s not hard or unrealistic it’s exhilarating doing things people say I can’t and proving the doubters wrong."

Andrew is 21-years-old and is doing good work, he even gives advice on YouTube. What about myself?

I decided that a change was needed in my life - instead of working an unfulfilling job that wasn't having any effect on the world. While screenwriting and acting may not seem to be the most selfless paths, they could give me a platform to have a positive influence on the lives of others.

I conveyed that to Andrew over the course of our conversation and that while there are challenges that I've gone too far to quit. The path to success is a difficult one, especially if you want to go against societal norms.

However, I encourage everyone to follow whatever brings them the most joy. Show passion, determination, and bring the willingness to fail - as we will all fail at some point during our journey.

Before we ended the conversation I told Andrew that we should all follow our dreams and attempt to make the world a better place for all.

Click the following link to read the full article:

http://reverbpress.com/business/exclusive-interview-with-millennial-entrepreneur-andrew-kozlovski/ 

The youth of  the United States are receiving a great deal of bad press despite data saying millennials and the younger post-Millennials are making numerous strides in society. The following is an interview with 21-year-old entrepreneur  Andrew Kozlovski the creator and owner of Brainz Power.

Response To Negative Press Millennials Receive

When asked for his reaction to Millennials taking the blame for the lowering profits of Harley Davidson, Buffalo Wild Wings, Napkins, and being less involved in the stock market – Andrew gave the following response regarding those headlines and general train of thought:

You know whenever something new comes along that challenges the existing system there will be a lot of push back. This is what is happening, it is nothing new, this has happened with every generation. The older generation criticizing the upcoming for all their differences, knowing this I pay little attention to this simply because they are not speaking from a logical place just from emotion because they know that we are going to change everything they spent years to establish. For example, when I started my company there were multiple members in my family that told me my idea would not work. They said there was no demand for my product, and it’s unrealistic to sell a product through social media. This was obviously said by people who don’t use social media, and by people who don’t know the current demand of the college population, so being stubborn in my own confidence in the business idea I ignored their advice and carried on to sell thousands of bottles of my product solely through Instagram in my first year in business. So we as millennials have to just understand that the older generation does not understand or see what we do as far as the current opportunities in business, so we have to just disregard their old ways of thinking and carry on executing in the current state of business not the past like they would like. 

“Of course, whether you like it or not millennials are changing the world in very meaningful ways and this major disruption causes a lot of push back,” was his response when asked if he felt the authors of these negative articles were using click-bait instead of research to make their points. He continued, “Millennials always see articles written about how our attention span is smaller than ever before and that we have no social skills because we spend too much time communicating through a phone instead of in person. We are able to have far greater reach and impact as a result of this ease of communication and content distribution.”

The Purpose Behind Andrew’s Business

Through our conversations, Andrew detailed his  wanting to help Millennials battle prescription drug abuse. He went into further detail as to why he feels strongly about Brainz Power’s role in battling this epidemic and the challenges he’s faced in becoming an entrepreneur.

There are two major things that come to mind on the benefits of my business first helping the Adderall epidemic witnessed among college students, and the second is experience. Starting a business at 19, and already having almost 3 years of experience before graduating college is extremely valuable. I have learned so much in the past few years, and I am very happy I did not wait until I graduated college or had “experience” to start a business. Nothing will prepare you for the hurdles you will face in entrepreneurship, they come from all angles and you learn to be extremely adaptive and make the best with what you have and to always adjust with the market. You can wake up one day and have something that worked for 2 years suddenly stop, you then have two options complain about how good it was or hustle to find something that can fill its void or even bring more value. You can never get comfortable, and experience has taught me so much that I’m coming out of college knowing exactly what to do with my time instead of going through the baby steps that I have been the past few years. This experience paired with giving students a safe alternative to Adderall are how I greatly benefit from my business. 

“There are two issues I care deeply about one of them I am addressing with my company which is the fight against Adderall. It’s an extremely harmful substance that floods college campuses and leaves kids with good intentions with lifelong addictions, and long-term health complications,” Andrew responded when asked about the issues he truly cares about. He also detailed how he wishes to become a voice for Millennials and post-Millennials in the business community, “I grew up with immigrant parents that taught me that you can accomplish anything if you outwork everyone, and entrepreneurship is no different and I want young entrepreneurs to know that.” Andrew continued on the topic:

A lot of young ambitious millennials are shut down by their elders in pursuing their business dreams by forcing them to think you need to have a degree or years of experience to flourish as an entrepreneur, but this is false. Success in entrepreneurship is no longer reserved for someone with grey hair, I could list you many examples but we all know them already. We have been proven over and over again that you don’t have to be old to be successful…

Andrew would state that the youth should take advice from older generations who are presenting information of value. He also reiterated that he plans to use YouTube in order to give advice to his peers as well. Andrew stated that he does not want to see young individuals have their dreams halted due to their age, as that kind of creativity is needed to shape a thriving economy and socially conscious society.

Advice To Youth In Today’s Society

Finally, Andrew was asked what advice he would give right now to Millennial and post-Millennials who had a business idea or other venture they wanted to follow:

It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, if you see potential that’s all that matters, you have to pursue it. No one understood my business idea or could comprehend selling hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of product through Instagram alone, but it happened. So my advice is to follow your gut and if you think you have a business idea that is surely to work, but doesn’t make sense to the older generation it still should be worth trying because if you fail you gain experience but if you succeed then you proved them wrong, so in my opinion trying is always a win-win scenario.

The following is a link to Brainz Power's second feature in the Huffington Post in the past month. Learn more about our CEO and his journey of growing Brainz Power in an effort to help all college students suffering from the Adderall epidemic. Link below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/millennial-entrepreneur-details-how-he-wants-to-fight_us_5971bdd8e4b06b511b02c272

Message From Our  CEO, Andrew Kozlovski: "I am extremely honored to be featured in the Huffington Post for my achievements in entrepreneurship. Huge thank you to Arianna Huffington and The Post for such an amazing article. I started the company with a mission to address a very real problem that I witnessed first hand as a college student, and its an honor to have such a prestigious media outlet acknowledge my journey. However, we can always get better, and having press like this helps spread the message that students have an alternative and don't have to depend on dangerous and addictive drugs to perform better in school. Thank you all for your support, and thank you to all my loyal customer none of this is possible without you." -Andrew Kozlovski

Brainz Power along with out CEO's story of founding the company have been featured in the prestigious news source the Huffington Post. Read the full article below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-alarming-rise-of-adderall-abuse-on-college-campuses_us_59683c59e4b06a2c8edb457f