Try This

Try This – 4 Things I’m Loving and Paying Attention To

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000

This week I’m sharing a few tools I’ve been using in my own home, some really interesting research, and more.

High level:

Fascinating science looking at exercise and cancer
The best air quality monitor I’ve come across
How to protect your HVAC from creating mold
A fun YouTube channel that I’m enjoying

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Rythm Health Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

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I personally have been trying to dial in my lipids since I’m a hyper-reabsorber of cholesterol, and Rythm helps me go beyond a standard cholesterol panel, giving me a clearer picture of cardiovascular risk. I also appreciate that they measure both total and free testosterone, which helps me understand how my sleep, training, recovery, and overall lifestyle are trending over time.

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Number 1: How Exercise Lowers Cancer Risk (One Powerful Explanation)

Your muscles are doing something you probably never gave them credit for: fighting cancer.

Researchers at Duke-NUS in Singapore, publishing in Nature Communications, found that healthy muscle releases tiny packages called extracellular vesicles loaded with a molecule, miR-7a-5p, that actually slows tumor growth by blocking a protein cancers rely on to multiply.

When they exposed colorectal, lung, and bile duct cancer cells to vesicles from healthy muscle, the growth was suppressed. Vesicles from aged, damaged muscle did almost nothing.

And here's the part that stopped me: in older mice, exercise switched the whole system back on. Treadmill and wheel running reawakened the aging pathway, restarted the vesicle production, and slowed tumors.

We already know exercise lowers cancer risk. A landmark study of 1.4 million people tied physical activity to lower rates of 13 different cancers, and that link is about as solid as it gets in this field.

What studies like this one from Singapore are trying to identify is how does exercise fight cancer? And what we are seeing is a concrete mechanism showing how muscle itself may be doing some of the protective work.

Yes, this specific research is early and done in flies and mice, so treat the mechanism as promising rather than proven. But it lines up with a human dataset in the study where people with age-related muscle loss had higher rates of several cancers.

The headline is simple. Keeping muscle on your body as you age is not just about staying strong and mobile. It may be part of your defense.

Number 2: Product I’m Loving

I've always taken indoor air quality seriously because we spend so much of our lives inside. I'm constantly looking for ways to better understand my environment and catch problems before they become bigger issues. After hearing a few people I really trust recommend Airthings, air monitor, I decided to give it a try and am loving it. No affiliation btw, just a genuine recommendation.

I now have Airthings monitors in my bedroom, my baby's room, throughout the house, and even in my office. One of my favorite features is tracking CO₂ levels. It helped us realize our bedroom CO₂ was getting much higher overnight than we expected, and making a few simple changes has noticeably improved both my sleep and my wife's. I also love having one in my baby's room so I can make sure the air quality stays in a healthy range while he sleeps.

The app makes everything incredibly easy to understand and, more importantly, gives you actionable insights instead of just data. If you want to consistently measure your air quality, I highly recommend it.

Number 3: Protecting Your HVAC System

Recently, through the help of the team at Lightwork Home Health,* I got connected to an incredible group of mold specialists (My Home Health) based in San Diego because I suspected that there was some hidden mold in my house. Through working with their team, we actually found some hidden mold in our HVAC system.

I'm still digging into the mold and finding out whether or not it’s connected to some random health symptoms that I've been experiencing over the last year (primarily eczema on my hand). Nonetheless, we're working on getting to the root of it and making sure the mold doesn't come back.

One interesting tip that I came across recently is to look into my HVAC filter—specifically making sure to not overtax the HVAC system by using too strong of an air filter, which I was 100% doing.

It turns out that if you're using too strong of a filter for your HVAC system, you cause it to overwork or potentially malfunction. I was using a MERV 13 air filter when I should have been using a MERV 8 or 9 filter, which was causing my HVAC humidity levels to go higher and condense more, contributing to mold growth.

Whether you rent your home or you own your home, it's important to make sure you're not only changing your filter regularly, but that you’re also using the appropriate air filter for your system.

Here’s a tip: if you take a photo of your air filter or enter the model number into ChatGPT, it'll give you a good breakdown of what's recommended. Often, manufacturers will also include their filter recommendation too.

Number 4. A YouTube Channel I’m Loving These Days

As many of you know, in addition to my passion for health, I'm also passionate about entrepreneurship and building companies.

One of my favorite entrepreneurs, Michael Girdley, has a super entertaining YouTube channel where he takes the top most successful businesses in our time and dissects their rise and fall.

Businesses like Topgolf and CrossFit, and even trends like pickleball and the collapse of the diamond industry.

It's such a fascinating channel for people who are interested in why a business succeeds, what causes it to fail, and what lessons we can learn as entrepreneurs, or even just as people interested in leadership.

The videos are short (often less than 20 minutes) and filled with great storytelling and entertainment. I hope you check it out.

See you next week.

Much love,

Dhru Purohit

* Heads up: I have an active partnership with Lightwork because I genuinely believe in their service. If you sign up through my link to test your home, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. As always, I only partner with companies and recommend services that I personally use, trust, or believe can provide real value.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

The information in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice; please consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any health-related decisions.

Try This – 4 Shares For The week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Today, I’ve got some fascinating things I’ve been paying attention to.

In today's issue, I'm sharing:

A research-backed workout for the aging parents and older adults in your life, especially the ones who are extremely sedentary or struggling with mobility
New science on creatine and its role in supporting cancer-fighting cells
An incredible study on the power of your mind
And a critical new study on the link between Parkinson's and pesticides

Let’s get into it.

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Tiny Health Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

If you've been following my work for a while, you already know I'm a big believer that your gut influences far more than digestion. But here’s what I think doesn’t get said enough: most people have no idea what’s going on in their gut until something goes wrong - bloating that won’t quit, brain fog, skin issues, or sleep issues that come out of nowhere. And we often treat the symptoms without ever looking at the root cause.

That's the gap that Tiny Health closes for me.

Tiny Health is an at-home gut health test that uses advanced metagenomic sequencing to analyze the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microbes that make up your unique gut ecosystem. And unlike most tests on the market that use 16s sequencing that give you a low- resolution snapshot of your gut, we can identify microbes at the strain level. That’s the difference between knowing “you have some bifidobacterium” and actually knowing if your supplements are helping you.

I’ve used it on myself and my newborn son since Tiny Health is one of the only tests built to track gut health from infancy through adulthood. For him, it’s meant to catch potential imbalances early, at the stage where the gut microbiome is being built for life. And for me, it’s helping connect the dots on my symptoms and get ahead of imbalances that could cause issues later.

What I appreciate about Tiny Health:

🧫 Simple at-home sample collection
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👨‍👦 Testing for every age and stage of life (I've used it for both my newborn son and myself)
✅ Tailored recommendations based on your results

Right now, Tiny Health is offering my Try This community $50 off your first gut health test. Just CLICK THIS LINK to claim your discount. Your gut has a story to tell. Tiny Health helps you understand what it's saying.

Number 1: The Four-Minute Workout for Sedentary Seniors

A few years back, I started talking about everything I do to keep my parents healthy as they age, and one question kept coming back: What workout will my sedentary parent actually start, the one who refuses to set foot in a gym or has mobility issues?

My answer was always a hodgepodge of a bunch of different links and articles, but recently I came across this Penn State study that was exactly what I've been looking for.

Researchers took 97 adults averaging 74 years in age, who were barely moving and already struggling to walk, and gave them a four-minute daily routine: push-ups, chair stands, band rows, and stair-stepping, 30 seconds each. No gym; just a resistance band and a step.

Twelve weeks later, they had pulled ahead of the control group on the exact markers clinicians use to predict falls and nursing-home risk: more chair stands, longer one-legged balance, faster sit-to-stand. And they actually stuck with it, completing the workout on 81 percent of the days.

Now, the honest caveats: It's a small, 12-week trial, it was scored over video, and it says nothing about heart health or weight. BUT, this is a momentum-builder, not a miracle. For a parent who won't start at all, momentum is the whole game.

The best part: The team built a free site, fasterexercising.com, with video demos for every move, an audio timer, a printable guide, and a progress tracker. Forward it to the stubborn parent in your life. Four minutes is very hard to argue your way out of.

Number 2: Can Creatine Support Cancer-Fighting Cells?

This is really interesting. Creatine may have a role in supporting cancer-fighting cells.

Researchers at UCLA discovered that dendritic cells (a type of immune cell responsible for activating the body's cancer-fighting T cells) depend on creatine to function in the nutrient-starved environment inside tumors.

When researchers gave creatine supplements to mice with melanoma, the animals developed more active dendritic cells, stronger anti-tumor immune responses, and significantly slower tumor growth.

This builds on earlier research showing that creatine also helps power killer T cells, suggesting

But here's an important caveat: these findings come primarily from mouse studies and laboratory experiments. We don't yet know whether creatine supplementation will provide the same cancer-fighting benefits in humans, although clinical trials are underway.

Creatine is becoming much more than a sports supplement. As scientists continue to study it, we're learning that it may influence everything from muscle and brain health to immune function.

While it's far too early to recommend creatine for cancer prevention or treatment, this is an exciting area of research that's worth keeping an eye on.

Number 3: They Knew It Was a Placebo, and It Still Worked!

Can you get real health benefits from a placebo… even if you know it's a placebo?

Perhaps, yes.

Researchers in Italy asked older adults to take either a placebo they believed was an active supplement, a placebo they were explicitly told was inactive, or no treatment at all. Surprisingly, the group that knowingly took the placebo reported lower stress and showed modest improvements in short-term memory and physical function compared with those who received no treatment. In some cases, the "open-label" placebo performed just as well as (or even better than) the deceptive placebo.

How is that possible?

Scientists think placebos aren't simply "all in your head." Expectations, rituals, and the act of caring for yourself can influence the brain and nervous system in ways that affect how you feel and function. Even when participants knew they were taking an inactive pill, the routine itself, and the explanation of how placebo effects work, may have triggered beneficial mind-body responses.

The findings are still preliminary. This was a relatively small study, and the improvements were modest, so no one is suggesting placebos can replace proven treatments.

But my takeaway? Never underestimate the power of your brain's expectations. While a placebo isn't a cure, this study is another reminder that our beliefs, habits, and daily rituals may play a bigger role in our health than we once imagined.

Number 4: The Specific Pesticide Linked to Parkinson's Disease

Here's something the research keeps circling back to: Parkinson's isn't just bad luck or bad genes. It's looking more and more like an environmental disease, one that our modern industrial system has had a hand in creating.

I've dug into this idea on the podcast with people like Dr. Ray Dorsey, who argues much of the modern rise in Parkinson's is man-made and at least partly preventable if we get our act together.

The problem was always specificity. "Pesticides" isn't one thing. It's thousands of chemicals. But a new UCLA study in Molecular Neurodegeneration names one specific pesticide: chlorpyrifos.

The researchers looked at more than 1,600 Californians in the state's farm belt. Long-term exposure to chlorpyrifos near home or work more than doubled the risk of Parkinson's. And they didn't lean on memories of possible exposure. They rebuilt each person's exposure from decades of official pesticide-use records.

Then they went further. They exposed lab mice to chlorpyrifos, and they quickly developed the classic hallmarks of Parkinson's disease.

And, to go one step further, the researchers exposed zebrafish to the same pesticide and determined mechanistically that it interferes with the brain's ability to correctly clean out toxic buildup.

So what can you do if you’re worried about this research? There’s actually a lot you can do to protect yourself and your family. Check out my podcast with Dr. Ray Dorsey; so many of the action items there apply to chlorpyrifos.

We’ll see you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 3 Shares For The week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Try This community, this week we’re talking VO2 max, shingles and dementia, and some solid advice about staying strong as we age and why that’s super important.

Let’s dive in…

Shout Out to Our Sponsor LMNT Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

Few things say summer like a cold glass of lemonade or an Arnold Palmer. The problem is that most versions are loaded with sugar.

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Number 1: How “Narrowing” Slowly Destroys Your Life

I loved this powerful thread on X from Dr. Howard Luks, an orthopedic surgeon for over 30 years. The thing that quietly destroys more lives than any injury or surgery isn't a torn ACL or a blown-out hip. He calls it the narrowing:

Here's a little summary of how narrowing works: You used to carry four grocery bags. Now you take two. You used to get on the floor with the grandkids. Now you stay on the couch. Your body loses a little capacity, your habits shrink to match, and a few years later that smaller life is just... your life. Nobody chooses it. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders. And the cruelest part? It feels exactly like aging, so people don't fight it.

Is some decline real? Yes, VO2 max drops about 10 percent per decade if you do nothing. Power fades twice as fast as strength after 50. But Luks says that's a sliver of what people actually lose. The rest is a death spiral. You stop lifting. You lose muscle. You get weaker. You lift even less. The loop tightens until the door you thought was open…closes.

Here's the hope: That loop runs both ways. Trained adults in their 70s routinely outperform sedentary people half their age. The ones who reverse the narrowing aren't genetic lottery winners. They just decided to stop accepting the losses. Luks is proof at 63. Most of your narrowing is reversible the moment you ask your body to work again.

So how do you push back? Luks lays it out in The Midlife Athlete's Playbook. The big idea: You can keep the same goals at 60 that you had at 30; you just have to train differently. The narrowing is real. But it is not your destiny.

Number 2: The Real Reason VO2 Max Declines with Age

Speaking of VO2 max, I came across this incredibly thought-provoking article by Daniel Tawfik that questions the dominant explanation for why VO2 max declines with age. The standard story has always been cardiac in origin. The heart pumps less blood, so your muscles receive less oxygen.

It turns out there's more to the story. But first, why should you even care about VO2 max? Because it might be the single best predictor of how long—and how well—you live.

VO2 max is your body's ceiling for taking in and using oxygen, and it’s one of the strongest predictors of longevity. In some studies, low cardio fitness rivals smoking as a risk factor for early death. And here's the kicker: Starting around age 30, it drops about 10 percent per decade if you do nothing, eventually settling around the minimum level you need just to handle daily life.

So, back to that heart-centric story. The new analysis from Healthspan breaks down the research, and it turns out your heart is only half the problem. In young adults, about 77 percent of what limits VO2 max is your heart, while 23 percent is your muscles. By your 70s and 80s, that flips to roughly 56 percent heart and 44 percent muscle.

In plain English? Young muscle pulls about 80 percent of the oxygen out of your blood. By 80, that drops to around 60 percent. Your muscles literally get worse at using the oxygen your heart sends them, as mitochondria fade and the tiny capillaries feeding them thin out.

So here's the good news: That muscle machinery is trainable, even late in life.

Endurance work is the most reliable way to build new capillaries, while short intervals (brief periods of intense exercise followed by rest) are the most time-efficient way to rebuild mitochondria.

And you don't need to live in the gym. Meaningful gains show up in as little as 60–90 minutes a week, and mitochondria start responding within the first two weeks. The takeaway is the same as Dr. Luks': The decline is real, but how steep it gets is mostly up to you. Start training now.

Number 3: Does the Shingles Vaccine Actually Help Prevent Dementia

You might have seen a bunch of health influencers and media outlets recently shouting from the rooftops that we should all be getting our shingles vaccine to help us dodge dementia. The excitement traces back to some splashy studies, including a widely covered "natural experiment" out of Wales, that found people who got the shingles shot were meaningfully less likely to be diagnosed with dementia in the years that followed.

Sounds amazing, right? But Dr. Vinay Prasad, a voice I really respect, came in and started questioning the data. And his issue isn't that a vaccine could help your brain. It's how ridiculously fast the studies say it works. One JAMA paper claims the shot is already slowing dementia by 100 days. Another shows a 5 percent drop within three years.

Here's the catch: Dementia takes years, sometimes decades, to develop. So how does a shot reverse it in a few months when no drug in 50 years has pulled that off, even with hundreds of billions of dollars thrown at the problem?

Prasad thinks the more likely answer is simple. It’s possible that people who get vaccinated are just different. They're usually healthier, see their doctors more, and stay on top of preventive care.

His best point? One analysis found that basically every adult vaccine seems to prevent dementia. That's a huge red flag that we're measuring the kind of person who gets vaccinated, not the vaccine itself. He's not anti-shingles-shot; he just wants us to pump the brakes on the dementia hype until a real trial proves it. Interesting take!

That’s it for now.

See you next week for more shares,

Dhru Purohit

Try This – 4 Shares For The Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Today, I’m sharing some helpful, promising, and hopeful news. I hope you find these shares as fascinating as I did.

Can this exercise strengthen your heart?
This simple hack could help prevent Lyme disease
Less pesticides with artificial intelligence?
The vitamin that might slow down coronary calcium

Let’s dive in…

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Rythm Health Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

Most people are guessing when it comes to their health. And relying on just one annual blood test only gives you a snapshot of what’s happening inside your body.

That’s why I’ve been using Rythm. It’s an at-home blood testing platform that makes it easy to monitor key biomarkers tied to cholesterol, inflammation, hormones, and metabolic health—without lab visits, waiting rooms, or traditional needles.

Personally, I pay close attention to my ApoB because I'm a hyper-absorber of cholesterol, my triglycerides because they're a great indicator of my metabolic health and activity levels, and my testosterone because it helps me understand how my training, recovery, and sleep are trending over time. My sister uses it to track hormone changes during perimenopause and gain more insight into what's driving her symptoms.

What I love most is the feedback loop. Instead of guessing whether your diet, workouts, supplements, or medications are working, you can track real changes month to month and make smarter decisions based on real data.

What I appreciate most is the simplicity:

Rythm is only $79/month, ships right to your door, and you can cancel anytime. Right now, Rythm is offering my community 15% off your first month, plus free shipping at Rythm Health. Just go to rythm.health/DHRUPUROHIT to get 15% off at checkout.

1. Strength Training Improves Women’s Hearts

In a two-year randomized controlled trial, researchers assigned older women to a supervised whole-body resistance training program and tracked changes in their heart structure and function over time. The women who lifted weights experienced favorable "cardiac remodeling." Essentially, their hearts aged more slowly than those who didn't train.

Specifically, resistance training helped prevent increases in the thickness and mass of the heart's main pumping chamber, which commonly occurs with aging and can raise the risk of heart failure.

The women also showed improvements in diastolic function, which refers to the heart's ability to relax and fill with blood between beats; this is a key marker of cardiovascular health that often declines with age.

Beyond the heart, the women improved strength, physical function, and several markers of metabolic health.

What's particularly striking is that these are benefits we've traditionally associated with aerobic exercise. This study suggests that strength training may offer similar protection against age-related changes in the heart.

Another reason why all people, including women, should prioritize strength training.

2. Give an Owl Some Love—You Could Help Slow the Spread of Lyme

If Lyme disease is a concern where you live, tick checks are important. But there's another layer of prevention that gets a lot less attention: reducing the number of infected ticks around your home.

Here's a fun fact I learned from the Give a Shit About Nature newsletter: Most people think of deer as the biggest carriers of ticks. They should actually be worried about tiny white-footed mice. A single mouse can carry up to 50 ticks at once! And the more mice, the more ticks in your area.

One strategy to prevent this is to make your yard more welcoming to the mouse's natural predators. Researchers at the Cary Institute have found that healthy predator populations (like Owls) help keep mouse numbers in check, which may ultimately reduce the number of infected ticks in the environment.

A yard that attracts owls may be a yard with fewer mice—and potentially fewer Lyme-carrying ticks.

One important caveat: Avoid rodent poisons. These toxins move up the food chain and can kill the very predators, including owls and other birds of prey, that help control mouse populations naturally.

You can follow Give a Shit About Nature’s X account here for more cool tips like this.

3. Could AI Help with a Pesticide-Free Future?

I came across an incredible video on X.com this week that made me genuinely excited about the future of AI.

via @bernsteind on X

The video showed an autonomous robot driving through a strawberry field in the middle of the night. It wasn’t using pesticides or spraying chemicals; it was just using ultraviolet (UV) light.

As it moves through the rows, the robot uses UV light to kill certain pathogens and pests while the farmers sleep.

You might have seen in the news lately that strawberries are consistently one of the most heavily sprayed crops in agriculture. They're so susceptible to insects, mold, and disease that farmers often rely on repeated pesticide applications to protect yields.

Now imagine a future where robots can patrol fields overnight, targeting problems with precision instead of blanketing crops with chemicals.

Will this eliminate pesticides entirely? Probably not. Agriculture is complicated, and no single technology is a silver bullet. But it's a glimpse of what's possible when automation, robotics, and AI are applied to real-world problems.

AI conversations often focus on the scary stuff: job displacement, misinformation, privacy concerns, and energy use. Some of those concerns are valid. But it's easy to miss the other side of the story.

The same technologies that generate headlines may also help us grow food with fewer chemicals, reduce waste, improve efficiency, and create healthier agricultural systems.

When people talk about AI, I think we're often asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, "Is AI good or bad?" it may be more useful to ask, "What problems can it help us solve?"

4. New Study: Vitamin K Slows Coronary Calcium

A brand-new study landed this week, and it caught my eye for one simple reason: It’s the first time we have ever seen vitamin K actually move the needle on heart health in a real clinical trial.

Researchers in the Netherlands gave 180 people with early heart disease either 360 micrograms of vitamin K2 (MK-7) daily or a placebo, then tracked the buildup of calcium in their arteries for two years.

The result? The placebo group's artery calcium climbed from 145 to 214. The vitamin K group went from 135 to 184. Less buildup, and the difference held up even after adjusting for other factors. That has never been shown before.

But there are some limitations. The study only measured calcium on a scan. It never tracked actual heart attacks or strokes, and calcium in a plaque can sometimes be the body's way of stabilizing it. So slowing it down might be good, or it might not be. We don’t know yet.

My take? My functional medicine doctors have recommended vitamin K2 alongside vitamin D for years because the risk is low and the logic is sound; this is the first real evidence that it does something measurable. But anyone claiming it "reverses" heart disease might be speaking too soon.

If you want a full, nuanced view, vascular surgeon Dr. Lily Johnston did a great breakdown of the trial on YouTube.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 4 Shares For The Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Today, I’m sharing four really cool things in the medicine space that might give us all a little hope. Personally, I’m excited to be alive during this time of advancement and possibility when it comes to healing from chronic disease. I hope these shares make you feel hopeful, or at least intrigued!

High-level:

The effects of GLP-1 drugs on breast cancer
Revolutionary research on aging cells
A wild story of a woman with dementia
Interested in peptides? Watch this

Let’s dive in…

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Our Place Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

When cooking feels complicated, it becomes a lot easier to order takeout or grab something convenient. The more friction there is in the kitchen, the less likely we are to cook at home. That's why my wife and I are always looking for tools that make healthy cooking feel simpler, not more complicated.

Lately, two of my favorites have been the Titanium Pro Cookware and the Wonder Oven Pro from Our Place.

The Titanium Pro has become my go-to pan for everything from eggs and vegetables to salmon. It gives food an incredible sear, heats evenly, cleans up easily, and feels like something that's built to last for years.

And the Wonder Oven Pro has become my shortcut for quick, healthy meals. It heats up fast, cooks efficiently, and is perfect for those nights when you want a real meal without the hassle of turning on a full-size oven.

What I appreciate most is that Our Place makes cooking easier. Less waiting. Less cleanup. Less effort. And when healthy cooking becomes easier, you naturally do more of it.

That's a win for your health, your family, and, honestly, your sanity on a busy weeknight.

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GLP-1 Medication Cuts Breast Cancer Risk by 30% in Overweight Women

Could the most famous weight-loss drugs in America also lower breast cancer risk? A new University of Pennsylvania study presented this year looked at health records from more than 110,000 overweight and obese women ages 45 to 80 and found that those taking GLP-1 medications were about 30 percent less likely to develop breast cancer.

Via @ABC on X

So what’s going on here?

Part of the benefit may simply come from weight loss. Excess body fat, especially after menopause, is a known risk factor for breast cancer. But researchers think there may be more to the story. GLP-1 medications appear to reduce inflammation, improve metabolic health, and influence several biological pathways involved in cancer development.

Before we get too excited, it's important to remember this was an observational study. It can't prove that GLP-1 medications directly prevent breast cancer, and we still need randomized clinical trials to know for sure. Researchers are already working on those studies.

The bigger takeaway: We're learning that metabolic health touches nearly every aspect of health, including cancer risk. Whether through weight loss, blood sugar control, exercise, sleep, or nutrition, taking care of your metabolism may be one of the most powerful long-term investments you can make.

A World First: Therapy to Make Cells Young Again Trialed in a Person

Scientists just gave a person a therapy designed to literally make their old cells young again.

And by the way, this is the first time it's ever been done in a human.

Via @davidasinclair on X

It comes from David Sinclair's company, Life Biosciences, and it's based on his lab's work in which they flipped on three "youth" genes in mice and got damaged optic nerve cells to regenerate—even reversing vision loss in old mice.

Now they're trying it on someone with glaucoma, going after nerve cells in the eye that we've always been told can't grow back. I, and many others, are watching this one closely because if it’s successful, it could be groundbreaking for reversing cell damage.

Wild Case Study

This is a powerful and mind-blowing case study of a woman with Alzheimer’s who took psilocybin and woke up a different person.

via @bryan_johnson on X

An 80-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer's disease had spent years in severe decline.

She could speak only in short, monosyllabic responses. She was incontinent, needed help walking, struggled with daily tasks, and rarely engaged socially.

Then something unexpected happened.

As part of a case study, researchers administered a high dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in "magic mushrooms." About 19 hours later, the woman began speaking in full sentences and recalling memories she hadn't expressed in years. Over the following days and weeks, she regained bladder control, dressed herself independently, engaged in conversations, made eye contact, and showed an emotional responsiveness that had largely disappeared. A second, smaller dose appeared to produce additional improvements.

Before we get too excited, there's an important caveat: This was a case report involving a single patient. The treatment did not reverse Alzheimer's disease, and the improvements were temporary.

Still, the findings raise a provocative question. What if some abilities lost in late-stage Alzheimer's aren't entirely gone, but instead become inaccessible as brain networks break down? Researchers speculate that psilocybin's effects on brain connectivity and neuroplasticity may have temporarily unlocked functions that had gone dormant.

If a family member or I developed Alzheimer’s one day, I’d definitely look into psilocybin (amongst many other things).

In fact, I took my parents on a guided psilocybin trip a few years ago as part of their health and soul journey, and it was a profound and magical experience for both of them.

If you want to learn more about the power of psilocybin, who should try it, and who shouldn’t, check out my episode this week with Dr. Will Van Derveer. I talk about my experience with psilocybin, too!

Podcast Episode I’ve Been Enjoying

Speaking of fringe therapies, I’ve been really paying attention to the peptide conversation. If you’re curious about peptides—what they are, who they’re for, and the nuances around them—this podcast episode with Andrew Huberman and Dr. Abud Bakri is the best deep dive I’ve seen.

Even just the first 30 minutes are pretty fascinating. They talk about BPC157, a peptide that has the potential to accelerate tissue healing, reduce inflammation, and support gut health. It’s also become the most popular and powerful peptide available right now, and something I've been taking for a couple of years now, on and off.

They also talk about the criticism surrounding peptides. Some experts argue that we have to be super careful with these medications because they could accelerate cancer risk, while others argue that they are exciting and could be the new frontier of healing.

What I like about this episode is that Dr. Abud gives a well-balanced take on peptides, including what we know and what we don’t. I highly recommend it!

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 3 Shares For Your Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Today I’m sharing three things that really caught my attention this week.

This powerful biomarker could help you prevent dementia
Astounding breakthroughs in cancer treatment this week
How Finnish researchers are supporting children’s microbiomes

Let’s get into it.

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Bon Charge Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

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Number 1: Your Brain Has a Night-Shift Cleaning Crew, and Your Wearable May Be Watching It

Why do chronic stress, depression, heart disease, and poor sleep all seem to increase the risk of dementia?

According to a recent review in Science, they may have something important in common: They can all interfere with your brain's nightly cleanup process.

Researchers are increasingly focused on the brain's glymphatic system, a network that becomes most active during deep sleep. Think of it as your brain's sanitation crew. While you sleep, it helps clear away metabolic waste, including amyloid-beta and tau, the proteins that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease.

When sleep is short, fragmented, or of poor quality, that cleanup process may become less efficient. Over time, waste products can build up, potentially contributing to neurodegeneration.

Here's the real punchline, and the part I found most useful: The authors argue that one of the best at-home proxies for how well this system is running is something your wearable (Apple Watch, Whoop, or Oura Ring) may already be tracking—your heart rate variability (HRV).

Why HRV? Your autonomic nervous system orchestrates the deep, restorative sleep that powers glymphatic clearance, the exact thing HRV measures. A higher, healthier overnight HRV tends to reflect the calm, parasympathetic-dominant state your brain needs to do its housekeeping. A consistently suppressed one can be a sign that this state isn't happening.

So your nightly HRV trend may be a cheap, noninvasive window into whether your brain's detox crew is actually clocking in and, the paper suggests, into your long-term risk for chronic disease, especially dementia.

Also, there’s more good news: You can work on improving your HRV. Check out my episode with Dr. Jay Wiles, which is all about this topic.

Number 2: Big Progress in the World of Pancreatic Cancer

Here’s some pretty awesome news when it comes to the deadliest form of cancer: pancreatic cancer.

This devastating disease has a five-year survival rate stuck at just 13 percent, and this year, an estimated 52,740 Americans are expected to die from it. If you've followed this disease for any length of time, you know we almost never get results worth celebrating.

Well, that just changed. Researchers just published a phase-three trial in The New England Journal of Medicine testing a new targeted oral drug, called daraxonrasib, in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer whose disease had already progressed after prior treatment (which is brutally common).

The result: Patients on the new drug lived a median of 13.2 months, versus 6.7 months on standard chemotherapy. Let that sink in. For one of the deadliest cancers we know of, this essentially doubled survival.

My friend Dr. Joseph Zundell broke this down beautifully in a video, and his framing stuck with me. A survival number like that isn't just an abstraction on a chart. In real life, it becomes another birthday, another anniversary, more time with kids and grandkids. More than 90 percent of pancreatic tumors are driven by RAS-pathway mutations, a target scientists spent decades calling "undruggable." Now we finally have hard evidence that hitting that biology head-on can change outcomes.

Additionally, an immunotherapy called Anktiva is being tested in pancreatic cancer from a totally different angle. Instead of attacking the tumor directly, it rebuilds the patient's own immune defenses, ramping up the NK and T cells that cancer and chemo tend to wipe out.

The data is earlier-stage and mostly from combination trials, so keep the hype in check, but it's promising enough that the FDA gave it a fast-track Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation in pancreatic cancer. And patients who rebuilt their immune counts have shown meaningfully longer survival, including one remarkable case still in remission more than six years out.

Cancer is brutally multifactorial, which is exactly why I've watched even very healthy people get blindsided by it, and you don't beat something that complex with a single magic bullet. So having multiple shots on goal at once—such as targeted pills like daraxonrasib and smarter immunotherapies like Anktiva—is exactly the kind of progress we need. And we need every good option we can get.

Number 3: Let Kids Play in Dirt—Their Immune System Depends on It!

This is a fun share that I came across on X about Finnish researchers who transformed urban daycare playgrounds by covering the gravel with real forest soil, grass, and natural vegetation.

The kids dug in it, climbed on it, and got dirty. That's it. Just 28 days later, the researchers saw changes they didn't expect to happen so quickly.

The children exposed to the forest environment developed more diverse bacteria on their skin and in their gut (microbes that help train and regulate the immune system).

Their blood also showed increases in regulatory immune cells, the cells responsible for teaching the body not to overreact to harmless triggers like pollen, dust, or certain foods. And their markers of inflammation dropped as well.

The children who continued playing on standard gravel playgrounds showed none of these changes.

Why does this matter? Rates of allergies, asthma, and autoimmune conditions have risen dramatically over the past few decades. Some scientists believe part of the reason is that modern life has disconnected us from the microbes humans evolved alongside. Many children now spend surprisingly little time outdoors, and even less time interacting with soil, plants, and natural environments.

The takeaway: Spending more time in nature isn't just good for your mental health. Gardening, hiking, playing in the dirt with your kids, or simply spending time in green spaces may expose you to beneficial microbes that help support a healthier, more resilient immune system. Sometimes the simplest health interventions are the ones we've been doing for thousands of years.

I hope that one day, American daycares will follow suit after seeing this research. One can dream!

See you next week.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 4 Things I’m Paying Attention To

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 29 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Try This community, I have four really great shares for you this week.

High level:

Do weight-loss drugs impact cancer outcomes? We’ll dive into it.
A crazy stat for anyone who has anxiety.
Small amounts of exercise can change your brain.
A fun and sweet picture from my family and me.

Let’s get started.

Shout Out to Our Sponsor LMNT Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

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Number 1: New GLP Drugs Seem to Improve Cancer Outcomes

When GLP drugs first started becoming popular, the big concern among many naturalists was that one day there would be some hidden downside, like these new classes of drugs increasing your risk of cancer.

But as these drugs became more popular, a lot of open-minded researchers and doctors started getting excited that these medications could actually lower your risk of cancer by reducing obesity and improving your metabolic health.

Retatrutide is a new triple agonist (the next evolution of these drugs) by Eli Lilly, and the breaking data on stalling cancer progression is pretty wild!

Here’s a summary of a recent Wall Street Journal article (subscription needed) from biomed scientist Avi Roy:

In one study that included 12,111 participants, there were seven tumor types tested. GLP-1 users had half the lung cancer and breast cancer metastasis rate (10% versus 22%).

In another study on colon cancer, patients taking GLP-1 medications had significantly lower five-year mortality rates compared to non-users (15.5% vs. 37.1%).

Researchers are now studying GLP-1 medications far beyond blood sugar and weight loss. Clinical trials have linked them to lower rates of heart disease, slower kidney decline, improvements in sleep apnea, reduced liver fat, and even lower rates of addictive behaviors. Scientists are beginning to wonder whether these drugs may influence deeper pathways tied to inflammation, metabolism, and cellular health throughout the body.

In Avi’s exact words, “Tumors express GLP-1 receptors. Activate them, and NF-kB drops, apoptosis rises. The drug isn’t just shrinking fat. It’s talking directly to cancer. One drug class. Designed for blood sugar. The biology keeps finding uses the designers didn’t predict.”

Pretty wild and amazing!

Number 2: Most Worries Don’t Happen

A good reminder for all of us from Brandon Luu:

This is not meant to take away all worries or say that worry has no place, but sometimes it’s important to remember that more often than not, the things we worry about most don’t happen.

If you have any chronic worriers in your life, send this to them. It will hopefully make them feel a little less worried!

Number 3: Does Being a “Weekend Warrior” Have Any Benefit?

We tend to think exercise only “counts” if it’s done consistently throughout the week. But a new study (summarized by neurologist David Perlmutter here) suggests the brain may care more about total movement than perfect scheduling.

Researchers looked at over 10,000 adults and compared people who exercised regularly throughout the week with “weekend warriors”—those who packed most of their movement into just one or two days. Over roughly 16 years, both groups showed similar reductions in risk for mild cognitive impairment, a condition that often comes before dementia.

In another large study using activity trackers from more than 75,000 adults, weekend warriors also showed lower risks of dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and even Parkinson’s disease compared to inactive people.

The takeaway? If your schedule makes daily workouts feel impossible, don’t let perfection stop you from moving at all. The research suggests that hitting the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week—even if it happens mostly on weekends—can still have major benefits for your brain and overall health.

So this is your reminder that a long hike, pickleball game, bike ride, or workout class on the weekend still counts. Your brain doesn’t care if it happened on a Tuesday morning or Sunday afternoon.

Number 4: A Fun Life Update from My Family and Me

Many of you know that I’ve recently become a dad! Here’s a photo of me, my wife Yasmin, and our baby boy.

Thanks for being part of my community!

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – Two simple sleep hacks I shared with a friend last week

Dhru Purohit — Mon, 25 May 2026 12:50:00 +0000

Last week, a friend reached out because he was still waking up groggy, even after focusing on the basics: cool, dark room, magnesium, no screens after 9 PM, blue-light blockers.

Sleep is tricky. Honestly, there are so many variables at play. But I suggested he explore two often-overlooked, very simple things that have made a difference in my own sleep.

If you or anyone you know struggles with sleep, keep reading. I want to share these tips with you, too.

Tip 1: Open Your Bedroom Window

Ever notice you sleep ridiculously well when you're camping?

Or how that vacation rental with the cracked window left you feeling more refreshed than you'd felt in months?

It's not just the change of scenery. It's the CO₂.

Outdoor air sits around 420 ppm CO₂. A sealed bedroom can climb past 2,000 ppm overnight as you and a partner exhale for eight hours straight.

Why does that matter?

Your brain monitors blood CO₂ levels and responds to elevations by increasing breathing rate. In a high-CO₂ environment, this constant low-level respiratory signal keeps the nervous system in a lighter sleep state, reducing slow-wave sleep and REM duration.

That means less deep sleep. More micro-arousals. And more foggy mornings.

One of the strongest studies on this comes from the Technical University of Denmark.

The researchers recruited people living in single-occupancy dorm rooms and had them sleep under two different conditions for a week at a time: one with better nighttime ventilation (either by opening a window or using a quiet fan system) and one with poor ventilation. They then measured bedroom air quality using CO₂ levels as a marker of ventilation and tracked sleep using wrist-worn sleep monitors called actigraphs, along with morning questionnaires and next-day cognitive tests.

The difference in air quality was dramatic. Bedrooms with closed windows reached average CO₂ levels around 2,400–2,600 ppm, while better-ventilated rooms stayed closer to 660–835 ppm.

When air quality improved, participants:

Fell asleep faster
Felt less sleepy the next day
Reported feeling more rested
Experienced objectively better sleep quality

They even performed better on tests of concentration and logical thinking.

Same beds. Same students. Only the air changed.

Crack your window 2–3 inches before bed. If noise is an issue, run a fan that pulls air from another room.

And if you want to get fancy and monitor your CO₂ levels, check out the Airthings monitor (no affiliation). I have one in my bedroom as well as my son’s nursery, and it nudges me to open the windows when the CO₂ levels are too high.

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Tip 2: Stop Eating Three Hours Before Bed

This second one took my friend by surprise.

Most people don't realize how late they actually eat. A brand-new April 2026 study published in Nature Metabolism by Dr. Satchin Panda's lab at the Salk Institute analyzed more than 2.5 million food logs from over 21,000 adults across two weeks of real-time logging.

The findings were striking. The median eating window stretched 13 hours and 24 minutes. More than half of the respondents finished eating after 8:00 p.m. And only 5.2 percent of people ate their meals around the same time every day.

Translation: Most of us are eating right up to bedtime and on no fixed schedule.

Why does that wreck your sleep?

When you eat late, your stomach is busy digesting while your body is trying to repair itself.

In a study of men in Brazil, higher nocturnal fat intake from dinner plus late-night snacks was associated with lower sleep efficiency, longer sleep latency, and more wake time after falling asleep.

Another review found that food intake within 30–60 minutes of bedtime negatively influences sleep quality, with a greater effect in women than men. And separate research in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology found that eating your last meal three hours before bed is associated with lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, and better-controlled blood glucose.

Here's where Dr. Panda’s study gets really interesting:

People who pushed their eating window later didn't just eat at different times. They ate completely different foods. Late eaters who finished after 10:00 p.m. ranked beer, wine, ice cream, and cereal much higher in their food preferences. Early eaters who finished before 7:00 p.m. preferred walnuts, dark chocolate, and oatmeal.

The authors of the study point out that late eating windows raise the likelihood of consuming alcohol and energy-dense foods like ice cream in the late evening. These are exactly the foods that fragment your sleep.

My rule of thumb for sleep: no calories within three hours of bedtime. If you go to bed at 10:30 p.m., your last bite is at 7:30 p.m. Now, this doesn’t work great for people who wake up with really low blood sugar in the middle of the night. If that’s you, try a protein-rich snack, like nut butter with apples or celery, before bed.

Pick One and Start This Week

If I had to pick just one for my friend, I'd start with the window. It requires zero willpower.

If you want to layer the second one in, close your kitchen three hours before bed.

Try it for seven days and notice how you feel in the morning.

Here's to your health,

Dhru

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 3 Shares For Your Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 22 May 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Try This community, today I have 3 shares for you!

Does supplementing with calcium and vitamin D make you less frail?
The right amount of exercise to protect your heart!
A fascinating habit of kids in China that improves mental focus.

Let’s get into it.

Shout Out to Our Sponsor BiOptimizers Who Help Keep This Newsletter Free

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Number 1: Should you take calcium supplements to protect your bones?

A brand new systematic review pulled together 69 randomized trials involving over 150,000 participants to answer one question: do calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation actually prevent fractures and falls as we age?

The answer? In isolation, they probably don't help with frailty.

And here's where it gets even more interesting. Supplemental calcium (the synthetic kind, not from whole-food sources) has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease. One earlier BMJ analysis of 24,000 adults found a 139% greater risk of heart attack in those who reported taking calcium supplements. Dietary calcium showed no such risk.

*Note: This study did have some limitations. It was self-reported data, and we don’t know if those who reported taking supplemental calcium had other risk factors.

So what actually works?

For bones, get your calcium from bioavailable sources: high-quality dairy if you tolerate it, sardines with the bones in, or even an eggshell calcium supplement (this is my personal go-to since dairy doesn't work for me).

For vitamin D, supplementation can still be beneficial for a lot of different aspects of our health, but it doesn’t seem to move the needle when it comes to frailty, especially in isolation.

Regarding frailty, the strongest data is on movement, resistance training, and eating enough protein to protect lean muscle mass, especially as we age.

In fact, a 2024 JAMA systematic review of 83 randomized trials and nearly 49,000 older adults found that exercise was the single most consistent intervention for preventing falls, reducing fall rates by 15% and injurious falls by 16%.

Move it or lose it.

Number 2: The Hard Truth About How Much Exercise Your Heart Actually Needs

A brand new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine is going to be uncomfortable for a lot of us. But it's the kind of truth I want to know.

Researchers tracked 17,088 adults using wrist-worn accelerometers and followed them for nearly 8 years to answer one question: how much exercise actually moves the needle on cardiovascular disease risk?

Hitting the standard recommendation of 150 minutes per week was linked to only an 8% to 9% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.

To get a 30% or greater reduction, participants needed 560 to 610 minutes per week.

That works out to 80 to 90 minutes a day.

Before you feel discouraged, let's first talk about what actually counts as moderate-to-vigorous activity.

Participants in the study wore wrist accelerometers in their everyday lives, not just during structured workouts. The device was capturing any activity that elevated their heart rate to a moderate-to-vigorous level. That includes things like:

A brisk walk to a coffee shop and back
A round of pickleball
A weekend hike with the family
Cycling to do errands
Carrying groceries up the stairs
Yard work or gardening at a real pace
A dance class

You don't need 90 minutes of heavy weight training every day. The 80 to 90 minutes is your cumulative daily dose, however you choose to stack it.

Now, let me be honest with you. As someone with one APOE4 gene copy and a real focus on heart health, I work hard to prioritize movement. And there are still plenty of days, especially as a new dad, where I struggle to get my activity in.

So why share this if it might feel discouraging?

Because I'd rather know the truth than keep telling myself I'm doing enough when the data says otherwise. Especially as I continue to age, I want to make decisions based on what's real, not what's convenient.

So yes, any level of activity is great and always helpful for our health. And based on this study, if you're serious about protecting your heart as you age, shoot for 80 to 90 minutes a day through a mix of different activities.

Number 3: Can Cardio In The Morning Make You Smarter?

Speaking of cardio, I thought this was a really fun share and something that you and your family might want to implement.

On Dan Go’s (@CoachDanGo) recent trip to China, he noticed that every morning before school, kids start the day with a run, pushing their heart rates to 80% of their max before heading to class.

He notes that similar practices have been adapted in places like Naperville, Illinois, where kids spend an hour in the gym every morning. This significantly improved their math and reading scores!

Honestly, I love this idea for kids and adults, too. Start the day with heart-thumping cardio (as long as you can do so safely), and not only do you feel endorphins, but you get your brain going too. I bet tasks feel WAY easier after doing this.

Who’s going to try it out?

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 4 Powerful Shares To Get You Walking

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Try This community, walking might be the most underrated health tool we have.

Want to keep weight off for good? There’s a magic number for daily step count.

Want fewer arguments with your spouse? Lace up your shoes because walking can help.

Worried about your parents slowing down with age? There's a walking stat that is important for you to know.

After my recent podcast with Dr. Courtney Conley, hundreds of you wrote in saying you were inspired to double down on your daily steps, and so am I!

Today's newsletter is dedicated to continuing the conversation on walking. We’ve got some fascinating and breaking research that will help you and your family stay consistent with walking because not walking is not an option if you want to stave off modern diseases.

Let's get into it!

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Number 1: Hot off the Press: The Step Count That Stops Weight Regain

A brand-new meta-analysis presented at the European Congress on Obesity analyzed 14 randomized controlled trials involving nearly 4,000 adults and landed on a surprisingly specific number: About 8,500 steps per day may be the sweet spot for keeping weight off long-term.

And honestly, this is the part of weight loss we don’t talk about enough.

Most people can lose weight in the short term. The real challenge is maintenance. Research consistently shows that roughly 80 percent of people regain some or all of the weight within 3–5 years. But in this new analysis, participants who increased their activity to around 8,500 daily steps during the weight-loss phase—and then kept that habit going—were able to maintain most of their results long after the diet ended.

What’s especially interesting is that more walking didn’t seem to dramatically increase weight loss during the active dieting phase itself. That work was largely being driven by calorie restriction. Walking’s real superpower showed up later: helping prevent the slow creep of weight regain over time.

This feels especially relevant right now for people using GLP-1 medications—or coming off them—because we know that sustainable weight loss is the goal.

Send this to anyone whose goal is to lose weight. They might really want to be on top of that 8,500-step-count number!

Number 2: Pedometer++ Step-Tracking App

Right now, I'm not wearing an Apple Watch or anything to track my steps during the day, so I default to using my iPhone. And being a new father, I pretty much always have my phone in hand, even during walks.

But one mildly annoying thing about the iPhone is that the default step counter in the Health app is often delayed. It can take several minutes for it to update your current step count, which isn’t ideal when I’m shooting for a step goal on a quick walking break.

A few months ago, I came across the Pedometer++ app, and not only does the free version have a real-time pedometer, but it also has a bunch of other great features that make it more fun and likely that you’ll hit your step count—things like a snapshot of your weekly progress and a badges page to track your consistency.

They have a paid version, but honestly, the free version is so good that I haven’t upgraded.

Number 3: Walking = Less Fighting

There's actually a wild body of research on how walking reduces conflict, especially between couples.

A 2017 paper in American Psychologist synthesized decades of work, and the premise is striking: When two people walk side by side, their steps unconsciously sync up. That synchrony has been shown to boost empathy and make it easier to take your partner's perspective.

The position matters too. Face-to-face conversations over hard topics ramp up dominance behavior and pressure tactics. Walking puts you shoulder to shoulder, both facing the same direction. Add in the stress reduction and creativity boost walking gives you, and you have a powerful, low-cost tool sitting right there.

One more layer worth noting: As I've shared in past newsletters, the late Dr. Francine Shapiro developed EMDR therapy after a walk in the park, where she noticed her own distressing thoughts lost their grip as her eyes naturally scanned back and forth. Walking outdoors and letting your gaze sweep the horizon does something similar, calming the nervous system through that same bilateral eye movement. Hat tip to her foundational work.

So next time you and your spouse are stuck on something, get off the couch. Put on your shoes. Walk it out.

Number 4: Keeping Your Parents Healthy: Hearing Loss and Walking Speed

If you've been reading for a while, you know I think a lot about my parents' health and how to keep them sharp and strong as they age. When I came across this Wall Street Journal piece (subscription needed) from three days ago, I knew I had to share it, because I know many of you are in the same boat with your own folks.

Apple just published a massive new study with the University of Michigan, analyzing data from 57,183 iPhone users, and here’s the main finding: Hearing loss is linked to slower walking speeds, with the correlation strongest in adults 60 and older.

As Dr. Conley explained in our interview, walking speed is what researchers now call the "sixth vital sign," and it’s as telling about your overall health as heart rate or blood pressure. Slower gait has already been tied to higher dementia risk, more falls, depression, and earlier mortality. And hearing loss appears to drag walking speed down through several pathways at once. Your brain works harder to hear, which steals resources from other functions. Inner ear problems affect balance. People who can't hear well move more cautiously and withdraw socially.

The encouraging part: A separate three-year Johns Hopkins trial found that hearing aids significantly reduced cognitive decline AND the risk of falls in older adults at risk of dementia. So this is fixable.

If your parents are over 60 and you've noticed them slowing down, the answer might not be their knees. It might be their ears. Encourage them to get tested to see if they need hearing aids. There’s no shame in this; even younger people need hearing aids. It’s all about making your experience as joyful and easy as possible.

That’s it for now. See you next week.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 3 cool shares for the week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 08 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Try This community, sometimes wellness can feel so serious, so my goal today is to lighten it up with three fun/cool shares for you.

I hope you enjoy!

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Bon Charge Who Help Keep This Newsletter Free

Modern life isn’t exactly helping our hair. Stress, poor sleep, inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, and constant overload can all impact the health of our scalp and follicles over time, leading to hair loss.

That’s why I’m always looking for ways to support recovery and resilience at the cellular level, not just cover up the symptoms after the fact.

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#1 It’s Mother’s Day This Weekend

I got a chuckle from this post and of course immediately shared it with my wife Yasmin, who's celebrating her first Mother's Day this weekend.

Consider this your reminder to put some effort into a thoughtful gift for all the amazing moms in your life.

Thank you, honey, for every sacrifice you've made on our journey to becoming parents. I see all of it, and I love you more for it every single day.

#2 Direct to Consumer Labwork

Found this one through Russell Shaw on X and thought it was cool!

LabHackr is a free site that matches identical direct-to-consumer lab tests across 52 retailers, so you can find the cheapest version of the exact same panel.

You can browse tests by category (hormones, thyroid, gut health, vitamins and minerals, autoimmune markers, cardiovascular health, and more). Instead of bouncing between websites trying to figure out where to order an ApoB test, ferritin panel, magnesium test, or hormone workup, LabHackr organizes everything in a surprisingly easy-to-use way.

Of course, more testing isn’t always better, and labs are best understood when interpreted with guidance from a healthcare professional. But if you’re curious about understanding your body a little more deeply—or you’ve ever fallen down a rabbit hole trying to compare tests—this site is pretty helpful.

#3 Heartwarming TV Show I’m Watching

I'm not watching a lot of TV these days, but when my wife and I have 30 minutes in the evening, we love catching up on the latest episode of Love on the Spectrum Season 4.

If you haven't followed the series, it's a Netflix docuseries that follows young adults on the autism spectrum as they navigate dating and the search for real connection.

Here's the thing. So much of reality TV right now is completely fake. Producers manufacture drama, contestants get coached on what to say, and edits are stitched together to invent fights and love triangles that never actually happened.

Love on the Spectrum is the rare show that's not only 100% real but totally genuine. Nobody is performing for a brand deal. Nobody is auditioning for the spinoff. It's just real people being real. You walk away feeling better about humanity than you did 30 minutes earlier and with a ton of empathy for everyone on the spectrum and for the families doing their best to help their loved ones live and experience life fully. Highly recommend.

Alright, that’s it for this week!

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

The Wild Sauna Data My Mom Couldn't Stop Talking About

Dhru Purohit — Mon, 04 May 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Today, we're highlighting some wild data that's been out there for years but that so many people still haven't acted on.

This includes my own mom, who called me last week super excited because she listened to our episode with Bill Gifford on the power of sauna and, in particular, got really excited about the Alzheimer's data.

She'd been using the sauna here and there over the years, but seeing this data has her motivated to make it a regular practice.

Now, I've talked about it before, but I carry a copy of the APOE4 gene, which means that at least one of my parents likely carries this risk factor as well. We also have some family history of dementia on my mom’s side.

So dementia and Alzheimer's disease risk reduction is not only on my mind, it's 100 percent on my mom's mind as well.

The truth is, we still do not have a drug proven to reliably prevent Alzheimer's disease in otherwise healthy people. But we do have data on something powerful that keeps showing effect sizes our pharmaceuticals cannot touch.

It's the power of sauna.

In today's newsletter, we're going to get into the data on it.

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The 65 Percent Number

A long-running, population-based Finnish cohort study of middle-aged Finnish men found that more frequent sauna bathing was strongly associated with a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, even after accounting for known risk factors.

This study found that men who used a traditional sauna 4 to 7 times per week had a 65 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease compared with men who used the sauna once per week.

The researchers believe this is biologically plausible because sauna use improves vascular function, reduces inflammation, and lowers blood pressure—all of which are linked to dementia risk.

In 2020, a separate Finnish research team studied nearly 14,000 men and women. Over the first 20 years of follow-up, people who used the sauna 9 to 12 times per month had about half the dementia risk compared with those who used it rarely or not at all.

The association was seen in both men and women.

What These Studies Did and Didn't Show

These were not randomized trials. Healthy-user bias is real. People who sauna regularly may also do other things that protect their brain.

The 2020 data also suggested that very high sauna temperatures, above 212°F, were associated with higher dementia risk, not lower risk.

And the heaviest users did not appear to get extra benefit.

So the takeaway is not “more heat is always better.”

The takeaway is consistency, in a reasonable range.

Why It Probably Works

Researchers have a few theories on why sauna seems to be so protective.

One is that heat stress activates heat shock proteins, which Bill calls "mommy proteins." These proteins help cells manage damaged and misfolded proteins, breaking up clumps and keeping cellular machinery functioning. That matters here because the amyloid plaques and tau tangles you've heard about in Alzheimer's are exactly that: aggregates of misfolded proteins, the kind of cellular debris that heat shock proteins help clean up.

The second theory is vascular. Dementia is increasingly understood as a disease of the brain's blood vessels as much as the brain's neurons. Stiff, inflamed arteries reduce blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain. Sauna can raise your heart rate into the 120 to 150 range, similar to a moderate workout. Frequent sauna users have lower blood pressure, more flexible arteries, and better endothelial function. These are the same cardiovascular improvements you'd get from exercise.

Heart health and brain health are deeply linked. Sauna seems to act on both at the same time.

What I'm Telling My Mom and Dad

Two to three sessions per week, 15 to 20 minutes each, around 160 to 195°F.

No flight to Finland required. Even regular hot baths show meaningful and similar benefits, which you can read about here.

Start lower and shorter if you're new. Hydrate. Avoid alcohol. And check with your doctor if you're pregnant, prone to fainting, on blood-pressure medication, or dealing with heart disease.

The point is consistency.

I cannot promise this will prevent Alzheimer's. The disease is too complex.

What I can tell you is this: as far as low-cost, accessible habits go, sauna belongs in the conversation.

Thank you to Bill Gifford for the work he poured into Hotwired. Listen to our full conversation on The Dhru Purohit Show.

Here's to your health.
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 2 Big Shares on Pesticides and Cancer

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Try This community, today I’m diving into two important breaking studies.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how cancer rates are higher than ever among young people. The question is why?

While we might not have all the answers yet, there’s something we really need to pay attention to: pesticides.

Let’s get into it.

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Study #1: Are Pesticides Driving an Increase in Colon Cancer?

Colorectal cancer rates in adults under 50 have doubled since the late 1980s. Today, about one in five diagnoses happens in someone under 55. We already know part of the story—ultra-processed foods, poor sleep, metabolic dysfunction. But those factors may not explain the full story.

A new study published in Nature Medicine points to something else worth paying attention to: an herbicide called picloram.

Hat tip to agronomy consultant Sam Knowlton, whose X thread is what put this paper on my radar and whose breakdown of the data is better than anything I could write. A lot of what follows is a summary of his breakdown.

In the study, researchers looked at DNA methylation patterns—think of them as molecular “fingerprints” of lifetime exposure—in tumor samples. They found that younger colorectal cancer patients had a significantly stronger picloram signature than older patients. This pattern held across multiple patient groups.

One wild detail worth pausing on: The younger patients in this study were actually less likely to be obese than the older ones, not more. That cuts against the assumption that early-onset cancer is mostly a metabolic story. Something else is going on in these younger cases.

They also zoomed out and looked at real-world data. Over two decades, US counties with higher picloram use had higher rates of early-onset colorectal cancer, even after adjusting for income, education, and other pesticides.

What makes this particularly compelling is the timing. Picloram came into widespread use in the 1960s. Today’s younger patients were exposed during childhood, when our biology is more sensitive to environmental inputs.

And here's where it gets unsettling.

The researchers used a separate molecular signature to estimate how old each tumor actually was, independent of how old the patient was at diagnosis. When they sorted patients by tumor age instead of patient age, the picloram link got stronger, not weaker. The implication is that some of these "early-onset" cancers in 40-year-olds are actually old tumors that started growing decades earlier. A 45-year-old getting diagnosed today may have started this disease at 22, which flips the whole framing. There may be no such thing as early-onset cancer. Just late-detected cancer that started young.

And here's the part that should concern everyone, not just farmers: Picloram is among the most persistent and mobile pesticides currently registered. It's been detected in groundwater in at least 10 states, and once it reaches aquifers, it resists degradation. Communities drawing well water downstream may have been exposed for decades, often without knowing it.

This is just one study, but it’s the first time molecular, ecological, and temporal evidence have all pointed to the same potential environmental driver of one of the steepest cancer trends in modern epidemiology.

Important caveat: This is correlation, not causation. What makes it worth paying attention to is that the researchers triangulated three different lines of evidence that all pointed in the same direction.

I’ll share more tips on reducing our risk later, but it’s worth mentioning that a reverse osmosis water filter has been shown to dramatically reduce the levels of pesticides in drinking water.

Study #2: Pesticide Exposure Linked to 150% Higher Cancer Risk in Major Study

Another new study just put a number on what happens when "safe" pesticides combine in the real world: an average 152 percent higher cancer risk in the most exposed areas, even when none of the individual chemicals is classified as a carcinogen.

The study, covered by ScienceDaily and published in Nature Health, looked at 31 commonly used pesticides across Peru. Individually, none of these chemicals is classified as a carcinogen. They’ve all passed traditional safety standards.

But instead of studying them one by one, researchers mapped where these chemicals showed up together in soil, water, and air—and compared that to over 150,000 cancer cases.

What they found was striking.

Their map revealed 436 pesticide-associated cancer hot spots. The relative risk of cancer in these hot spots averaged 2.52, with some areas climbing as high as 9.38.

Translation: People living in the most exposed regions had between two and nine times the cancer risk of the general population.

Then they went deeper. They took liver tissue from people living in these hot spots and compared it to liver tissue from patients in France, Taiwan, and Turkey. The Peruvian samples carried a distinct molecular signature pointing to non-genotoxic carcinogenesis.

That phrase matters.

It means these chemicals are not directly damaging DNA. They are disrupting the regulatory programs that keep liver cells acting like liver cells, which over time pushes those cells toward an unstable state where cancer becomes more likely.

Here's the part that should change how we think about chemical safety. The standard regulatory approach tests one ingredient at a time. This study suggests that approach systematically misses what happens when multiple "safe" chemicals show up in the same body, in the same water supply, on the same food, year after year. Individual safety thresholds may not mean much when real-world exposure is a cocktail.

Important caveat: Just like the above study, this study shows correlation, not causation, and the geographic context involves specific indigenous and peasant communities with overlapping risk factors. The authors are up front about this. But the molecular signature they found in liver tissue gives the geography a mechanistic backbone, which is what makes the study worth paying attention to.

I definitely don’t want today’s newsletter to feel like doom and gloom. Rather, I hope it’s a call to raise awareness around what could be driving cancer rates in our modern world.

The more people know, the more they speak up, and the more we can change policy around toxins in our environment.

In the meantime, here are what I believe to be five high-impact ways to reduce pesticide exposure:

Use a reverse osmosis water filter, which has been shown to actually reduce your exposure to things like pesticides.
Buy organic when you can. You don’t always have to buy organic produce, but when possible, it can make a difference. Some foods carry higher residue than others, such as strawberries, apples, grapes, spinach, cherries, and berries. You can find more about what foods to buy organic here. Frozen organic food is also a great option if you can’t find fresh.
Also, wash your produce thoroughly. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but if you have the time, wash your produce in water and baking soda, and then rinse.
Be mindful of what you use in your yard and garden. Avoid lawn pesticides or herbicides near your home when possible. And take your shoes off to prevent tracking chemicals into the house.
Don’t ignore dust. It’s a hidden source of exposure. Pesticides don’t just stay on food. They build up in household dust and quietly increase your exposure over time. The fix is simple. Use a HEPA vacuum, wet mop floors, and wipe down surfaces regularly, especially in the kitchen and anywhere kids spend time.

That’s it. Small changes can make a big impact.

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 4 Big Shares for Your Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Try This community, I’ve got some really good shares for you this week.

High level:

If you use a red-light device, check this out!
The connection between this vitamin and Alzheimer’s.
If you’re worried about plastics in your body, I’ve got good news for you.
Why your oral health is critical for your brain.

Let’s get into it.

Shout Out to Our Sponsors BON CHARGE Who Help Keep This Newsletter Free

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Here’s what most people get wrong: it’s not just the device—it’s how you use it. And if it’s complicated, it doesn’t last.

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Wear it while reading or relaxing before bed. In just 10–20 minutes, it helps support:

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Relief from tension and stress

No complicated device. No extra time. Just a small habit that supports your skin while you unwind.

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Number 1: Red-Light Therapy Calculator

Ever wonder why some people swear by red light therapy and others say it did nothing for them?

A big part of the answer is simple: most people are using their devices wrong. They're too far from the device, not using it long enough, or guessing the dose instead of measuring it.

That's why I love this free website I came across recently called Red Light Timer.

It’s a simple website where you plug in a few key details: your device’s light strength (irradiance), how far you are from the device, and what you’re trying to improve—whether that’s skin health, recovery, pain, or something else.

From there, it gives you a personalized protocol based on the existing research, including exactly how long you should be using your device.

This is one of those tools that helps you get more out of something you’re already doing, without spending more money or adding complexity.

If you’re investing time into red-light therapy, it’s probably worth spending two minutes making sure you’re actually doing it right.

Note: Almost all manufacturers list the device’s light strength on their website. If you can't find it, just shoot them an email and ask.

Number 2: Midlife Vitamin D Levels Linked to Lower Brain Tau Decades Later

Speaking of light and health, here’s a super interesting study I came across recently!

A new study out of the University of Galway followed nearly 800 people for 16 years, and the findings are worth paying attention to.

People who had higher vitamin D levels in their 30s and 40s showed measurably lower deposits of tau proteins later in life. FYI, tau is one of the two key proteins at the center of Alzheimer's disease pathology.

This is exactly the kind of data point that fits the bigger picture we keep coming back to: dementia isn't a disease you suddenly develop in your 70s. It's something your brain has been building—or resisting—for decades.

Important to note that we've had experts like Dr. Roger Seheult on to talk about how vitamin D isn't just about supplementation. It's often a proxy for how much sunlight someone is actually getting.

Another interesting question came up in our conversation: Could healthy, regular sun exposure help people lower their Alzheimer's risk through multiple mechanisms at once—vitamin D being just one of them?

I’m definitely curious what later research will show.

Number 3: Reduce Plastic Exposure in Seven Days

We've talked a lot about the long-term dangers of plastic chemicals in the body. But how often do we get real-world data showing that simple swaps can actually move the needle? A new Australian study published in Nature Medicine just gave us some.

Researchers ran a seven-day randomized trial with 60 adults, swapping out food, kitchenware, and personal care products for low-plastic alternatives. The results were striking.

In just one week, the groups who changed their food and kitchenware saw urinary BPA fall by nearly 60 percent, with other common phthalates dropping by 37–53 percent. Total bisphenols were down roughly half across the food intervention groups.

One honest caveat: DEHP metabolites didn't budge—they actually trended upward. Researchers suspect DEHP (widely used, toxic plasticizer added to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products to increase flexibility) bioaccumulates in fat tissue and releases slowly, meaning a week isn't enough to clear it out. Not every plastic chemical flushes out quickly.

But the bigger message is encouraging. For many of the most common plastic chemicals we're all carrying around, your body can clear a meaningful amount in a single week if you change what your food is stored in and cooked with. Canned goods and plastic-packaged foods drove the strongest signals, so that's the easiest place to start. Oh, and get rid of your plastic cutting boards too!

Number 4: Another Study Connecting Gum Health to Alzheimer’s Risk

Your mouth and your brain are more connected than you think.

A new paper in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease adds another data point to something we've been talking about on the podcast for years: What's happening in your mouth may be influencing what happens in your brain decades later.

The study is observational, meaning it can't prove cause and effect, but the direction of the signal is consistent. Chronic gum disease appears to meaningfully raise Alzheimer's risk, and the mechanism researchers keep pointing to is inflammation.

Gum disease isn't just a dental inconvenience. It's a chronic bacterial infection. When bacteria like Porphyromonas gingivalis take hold under your gumline, the inflammatory response doesn't stay local. Inflammatory molecules travel through the bloodstream, and P. gingivalis and its toxic byproducts have actually been found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The working theory is that chronic oral inflammation is one more input feeding the neuroinflammatory cascade that drives dementia.

The reason this keeps coming up is that the intervention is almost absurdly simple. Brush, floss, and get regular cleanings. Treat bleeding gums as a signal worth acting on, not ignoring.

If you've been putting off your next dental visit, consider this your nudge. And if you are in the LA area or looking for a second opinion from an amazing dentist, I recommend Dr. Rouzita Rashtian. If you aren’t in LA you might find a great dentist here.

That’s it for now. See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

P.S. If you’re in the LA or SoCal area, join me for a conversation with Cynthia Li, MD, to discuss her new book, The Medicine of Flow: Harmonizing Your Inner State for Effortless Healing.

Most of us have been taught that better health requires more effort — more discipline, optimization, and willpower. In The Medicine of Flow, Dr. Li offers a different path.

Drawing from her own healing journey, modern science, and ancient wisdom, she reveals how embodied flow — a state of deep internal coherence — allows the body to restore itself, as if effortlessly. I’m excited to host a conversation about this book with Dr. Li at DIESEL bookstore in Brentwood, and I would love to meet you, too. Learn more here.

Try This – 3 big shares on bone health, fluoride, and your bedtime.

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Try This community, today I’m sharing some truths about fluoride in our water, PFAs and bone health, and why our bedtime matters so much more than we think.

Let’s get into it.

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No Link Between Fluoride and IQ? Not so fast!

Some of you might have seen the headlines this week claiming a major new study proves fluoride in drinking water has zero impact on IQ or brain function. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tracked over 10,000 people from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and found no link between community water fluoridation and cognition from adolescence all the way to age 80.

I've always been interested in this topic, but as a father now, I'm even more concerned about fluoride's impact on brain health and IQ in babies, especially boys.

The NBC article headline sounds definitive, right?

“Fluoride in drinking water has no effect on IQ or brain function, long-term study shows!”

Not so fast. I've covered fluoride concerns on the podcast before, including with functional dentist Dr. Mark Burhenne, and the existing data on fluoride's developmental risks to kids is much stronger than these headlines suggest.

Here’s one problem with the study: The study population was born in 1940, five years before any U.S. community began fluoridating water. The critical window for fluoride's cognitive effects is in utero and infancy, when the brain develops rapidly.

Another issue: the authors didn’t have fluoride measurements from the 1940s, so they had to make inferences about fluoride levels and exposures based on this 2020 publication. The study basically tested roughly 2 wells per county in Wisconsin for natural fluoride levels. If the well test resulted in ‘optimal’ fluoride levels, the authors assumed every child in that county was historically ‘exposed’ to fluoridated water.

Fluoride lawyer and advocate Michael Connett put it bluntly: it's like trying to determine if prenatal Tylenol exposure causes autism by measuring the neighbor's Tylenol use instead of the mother's.

The earlier studies showing IQ effects in children of mothers with higher fluoride exposure during pregnancy haven't been overturned. They've just been overshadowed by an incomplete, potentially misleading headline.

Dr. Mark Burhenne put it best on our past podcast: There's enough evidence to take a precautionary approach to fluoride, especially for kids under 2. Since babies don't have teeth until 6 to 12 months, fluoride offers no benefit during that critical window. You might as well play it safe and filter your water with a high-quality reverse osmosis filter.

Forever Chemicals Might Be Weakening Bones

Speaking of toxins and kids…

Last week, we covered how a new study published in The Lancet found phthalates contribute to preterm births globally. This week, another piece of the forever chemicals puzzle.

A new study tracked 218 children from birth to age 12, looking at PFAS and bone density measurements. Higher PFOA levels were consistently linked to weaker forearm bones at age 12. Those with the highest PFA exposure had a 30% higher chance of bone fractures than those with the lowest.

Adolescence is one of the most important periods for building lifelong bone strength (almost 40% of total bone mineral is acquired during adolescence). Anything that disrupts that process could potentially increase the risk of fractures, osteoporosis, and long-term skeletal issues later in life.

There are also plausible biological mechanisms here. PFAS may interfere with vitamin D signaling, hormone regulation, and bone-building pathways.

This doesn’t mean we need to panic. But it does reinforce a bigger point:

The everyday environmental exposures we barely think about may be shaping our health in ways we’re only beginning to understand, and anything we can do to minimize kids’ exposure can help.

Some easy ways to reduce exposure are:

Drink filtered water
Replace non-stick (Teflon) cookware
Reduce consumption of packaged and ultraprocessed foods

Small swaps can have a huge impact.

Your Bedtime Schedule Might Matter More Than How Long You Sleep

A massive new study from Finland tracked over 3,000 middle-aged adults for more than 10 years, monitoring their sleep patterns using wearable devices.

The finding that caught my attention and re-emphasized something we've talked about before: irregular bedtimes can double the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death.

But here's the twist. This only applied to people sleeping less than 8 hours per night.

If you are getting enough sleep, bedtime irregularity doesn’t seem to matter much. But if you are one of those people burning the candle at both ends with shorter sleep, going to bed at wildly different times each night can become a major cardiovascular risk factor.

In the study, researchers split participants into three groups based on how much their bedtime varied night to night. The "irregular" sleepers had bedtimes that swung by nearly 2 hours from night to night. Sometimes 9 PM, sometimes 1 AM. Compare that to "regular" sleepers whose heads hit the pillow within a 33-minute window each night.

What really struck me was that wake-up time variability didn't predict heart disease risk at all. It was specifically the consistency of when sleep was initiated that mattered.

This makes biological sense. When bedtime bounces around, you're repeatedly forcing your cardiovascular and endocrine systems to enter sleep at different circadian times, which can ultimately be damaging.

Brady Holmer (who’s awesome) talked about this study in his Substack, Physiologically Speaking, and called this, "one of the most important studies on sleep in the last decade." That sounds about right!

The practical takeaway: If you're not getting a full 8 hours, your bedtime consistency becomes critical. It's not just about sleep quantity anymore. It's about sleep rhythm.

Alright, that’s it for this week!

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 3 Big Shares Around Plastics

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Try This community, today I’m sharing some things you need to know about our plastics/microplastics problem and two things that I’ve been using to help reduce my exposure to their harms.

Let’s get into it.

Shout Out to Our Sponsor Momentous Who Helps Keep This Newsletter Free

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I’m big on habit stacking, so I just add it to my daily protein shake. It mixes easily, tastes great (unflavored or cinnamon), and fits seamlessly into what I’m already doing.

And here’s what I’ve noticed: When your gut is working well, everything feels better. Your energy is more stable. Recovery improves. You feel lighter, more focused, and even your sleep can benefit.

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Number 1: Plastics Contribute to Nearly Two Million Premature Births in a Single Year

This is pretty wild.

A new study published in The Lancet is the first-ever to look at the global estimate of preterm births tied to phthalates, the plasticizer chemicals found in food packaging, personal care products, and plastic wrap.

In 2018 alone, exposure to one of the most widely used phthalates, DEHP, was linked to 1.97 million preterm births and over 74,000 newborn deaths. That’s nearly 9 percent of all preterm births worldwide.

And preterm birth isn’t just about arriving a little early. Babies born before 37 weeks face a much higher risk of respiratory complications, neurological issues, and long-term developmental challenges. It’s also the leading cause of death in children under five globally.

By the way, as pressure mounted to phase out DEHP, manufacturers replaced it with a different chemical called DiNP. But this study found that DiNP may be associated with nearly identical risks.

Different name…similar outcome.

Plastics are life-saving in so many ways (especially in healthcare), but we urgently need to find alternatives that don’t cause as much damage. I’m not sure how it will work out, but the EPA and HHS did just declare plastics and microplastics a top priority.

Number 2: The Problem with Plastic Blenders

I love my Vitamix—it’s a total workhorse, and I use it almost every day. But if you’ve had one for a while, you’ve probably noticed the same thing I did: Over time, that clear plastic pitcher starts to get foggy and worn down.

Between the heat from the dishwasher and the constant abrasion from blending, that plastic is slowly degrading. And research suggests that regular use can release microplastics and associated chemicals into whatever you’re blending. I recently watched a clip of Rhonda Patrick and Steven Bartlett talking about this, and it really drove the point home for a lot of people.

A few years ago, when the data around plastics started coming out, I made the switch to a metal pitcher—and it’s been a no-brainer. I use my blender sometimes twice a day, so reducing that daily exposure felt like an easy win.

You can find stainless steel pitchers online pretty easily. Here is a link to some on Amazon.

One pro tip: When you switch to a metal pitcher, the blending becomes even louder than with a plastic pitcher. I measured the metal pitcher at around 90 decibels (dB), which is loud—not extreme, but definitely at a level where long exposure can start to damage hearing.

This may sound crazy, but I always take the extra step of just covering my ears with my fingers or hands to dampen the sound and protect my ears.

Number 3: The Boujie Plastic-Free Coffee Maker I’m Loving

One upgrade I’ve made recently that I’m really excited about is switching to a plastic-free coffee maker.

Most people don’t think twice about their coffee machine, but it turns out your morning cup might be exposing you to more than just caffeine. It's estimated that your morning cup of coffee in a traditional coffee maker could contribute around 400–500 microplastics per liter, but more importantly, over the course of a lifetime, you’re also getting exposed to all the other plasticizers used to make the coffee.

In the past, I've talked about how I switched to an Aeropress glass coffee maker, but the limitation of the Aeropress is that you can only make one cup of coffee at a time, which is just not practical for couples and families.

So when I found out about The Brewer by Simply Good Coffee, I was pumped because not only is it designed so that no plastic or aluminum ever touches the water, but it also makes multiple cups at a time (eight cups at once)!

Now, fair warning—this is a total splurge at around $430. But my thinking is that a high-quality coffee maker, if you take care of it, can easily last 10+ years.

Downside: There is no timer on the coffee machine, so that’s kind of a bummer, but if it means less exposure to plastic, I’m good with it!

Hopefully more companies will get into this space and bring the cost down, I’d love to see a $100 plastic free coffee maker accessible to the masses.

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

The Hidden Fat That's Shrinking Your Brain

Dhru Purohit — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000

IS VISCERAL FAT SHRINKING OUR BRAINS?

If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know I've been sounding the alarm on visceral fat for years. I went deep on it with Sal DiStefano in our recent episode. We covered why this fat is in a completely different danger category than anything else stored on your body.

But a new study just took the conversation somewhere we haven't fully gone yet.

We've known visceral fat damages your heart, your metabolic health, and your longevity. Now we have some of the strongest long-term evidence yet that it is actively shrinking your brain. And it's doing it independently of how much you weigh.

Here’s a little background: Subcutaneous fat is the kind you can pinch. Relatively inert. Visceral fat, on the other hand, wraps around your organs. It sits deep in your abdominal cavity, where you can't see or feel it. And it is metabolically active, constantly pumping pro-inflammatory molecules like IL-6, TNF-alpha, and CRP directly into your bloodstream.

The most dangerous part? You can have a normal BMI and still carry dangerous levels of it.

That creates a slow-burning inflammatory fire that feeds heart disease, insulin resistance, certain cancers, and, as we're about to see, brain degeneration.

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Here's what the new science shows.

A study just published in Nature Communications assessed MRI and Montreal-Cognitive-Assessment (MoCA) test results from 533 adults who had previously participated in Follow-Interventions-Trial (FIT) randomized clinical trials.

Researchers specifically set out to understand:

Does long-term exposure to visceral fat (the fat around your organs) impact brain health and cognition later in life, and does losing that fat actually protect the brain?

Here’s how they did it and what made this study super interesting:

They weren’t just looking at weight loss.
They wanted to isolate the role of visceral fat (VAT) specifically, which is metabolically more harmful than subcutaneous fat.
They looked at long-term effects (5–16 years later).
Most studies are short-term. This one asked: Do changes in visceral fat today affect your brain years down the line?
They combined advanced measurements:
- MRI scans of the brain (to assess brain volume and atrophy)
- MRI scans of fat distribution
- Cognitive testing (MoCA scores)
They tracked “exposure over time,” not just snapshots.
Instead of a single measurement, they calculated cumulative visceral fat exposure across years, giving a much more realistic picture of metabolic health.

Here’s what they found:

The more cumulative visceral fat someone carried, the lower their cognitive scores, even after adjusting for age, BMI, and diet.

Visceral fat loss during the original 18-month intervention predicted higher brain volumes 5 to 10 years later, including better gray matter and hippocampal volume, slower rates of brain atrophy, and better performance on cognitive tests like memory and attention.

Higher long-term visceral fat was directly associated with a faster rate of brain atrophy across multiple brain regions.

And the one that hit me hardest: BMI showed no significant association with brain structural outcomes. Only visceral fat did. Subcutaneous fat showed nothing either. It is visceral fat, specifically.

What This Study Did and Didn't Show

The cohort was 86 percent male, which doesn’t adequately represent or account for women’s biology and distinct hormonal dynamics around fat storage. This also wasn't a randomized follow-up, so we can't claim causation outright. And without Alzheimer's biomarker data, we can't say whether the atrophy reflects early AD pathology specifically.

What we can say: sustained visceral fat loss was independently tied to preserved brain structure and better cognition, in a way that weight loss alone was not.

So what do you do with this?

Get a DEXA scan if you can. It gives you precise measurements of your visceral fat, lean mass, and subcutaneous fat that you can actually track. The reason I love it is simple: seeing a real number motivates people in a way a scale never does.

If a DEXA isn't accessible, use your waist circumference. Research supports 37 inches or more for men and 31.5 inches or more for women as a signal of elevated visceral fat risk, even with a normal BMI. It’s free, takes thirty seconds, and gives you something real to track.

On reducing it: a sustained calorie deficit works regardless of diet style. Dr. Rhonda Patrick, who covered this same study recently, highlighted that losing just 5 to 10% of body weight can reduce visceral fat by 10 to 30%. A modest effort produces an outsized result.

In this study, the authors call out that visceral fat reduction seemed to be most impacted by blood sugar regulation, not cholesterol reduction or inflammation markers, but glycemic control.

In addition to blood sugar regulation, I personally am focusing on the following when it comes to visceral fat: Aerobic exercise and HIIT are the most potent tools. I’m prioritizing sleep since sleep deprivation specifically drives visceral fat storage by spiking cortisol and disrupting hunger hormones. Plus, I’m continuing to limit ultra-processed foods, alcohol, and endocrine disruptors like BPA, which can all contribute to visceral fat.

All of these interventions will not only target this dangerous belly fat but also help to save our brains.

Here's to your health.
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 4 Big Shares for the Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Try This community, today I have some great shares for you.

High level:

1. A product I’m loving (if you’re picky about water, you’ll love this one!)

2. This popular biohack is catching the attention of scientists

3. Simple health advice (for a wellness-confused world)

4. A powerful way to support a lower heart rate at night

Let’s get into it.

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Number 1: Product I’m Loving: A Better Bottled Water

A friend of mine, Ari, recently told me about this new water brand (Loonen), and I got a chance to try it. I have to say, I’m impressed. Even though I use a reverse osmosis filter at home, I still keep bottled water in my office for podcast guests, and I’ve been on the hunt for something I actually feel good about serving. That search really picked up after I came across some questionable data around the quality of certain legacy spring-water brands (like Mountain Valley Water) that I used to trust.

Loonen’s level of transparency and testing is really awesome. They source from protected mountain springs in California, and they test every single batch for over 300 contaminants, including forever chemicals, heavy metals, and even microplastics, with third-party verification and results you can actually access.

They also bottle exclusively in glass, which matters more than most people realize when it comes to limiting plastic exposure.

Right now, they’re mostly available on Amazon, and price-wise it’s pretty comparable to other premium glass-bottled spring waters—maybe a little more, but for the added testing and peace of mind, I think it’s worth it.

Big bonus: They also have a sparkling version with the same purity standards. If you’re picky about water, this is a really cool brand to check out. (FYI, I have no affiliation with this company.)

Number 2: Is Red-Light Therapy Worth the Hype?

I just came across this article, and it caught my attention because publications like Nature don’t talk about things like red-light therapy or “trending” biohacks.

I personally use a lot of red-light therapy devices in my life, and both my wife and I have noticed a difference after experimenting with red light. But I know there’s also a lot of skepticism about it out there.

But it seems like science is finally starting to catch up.

The authors of this article explain that red and near-infrared light appear to interact with your mitochondria, helping support ATP production, circulation, and cellular repair.

That might help explain why researchers are now seeing benefits in areas like wound healing, nerve health, eye health, and even certain neurological conditions. Some of these applications are already being used in clinical settings, which is a big shift from where this conversation was just a few years ago.

But here’s the nuance: These devices are not a cure-all. Not every at-home device has been rigorously tested, and not every claim you see on social media is backed by strong evidence.

What is clear is that light (especially wavelengths we historically got from the sun) isn’t just something we see. It’s something our biology responds to. And in today’s indoor, screen-heavy world, we’re likely getting less of those beneficial wavelengths than ever before.

So while red-light therapy isn’t a magic bullet, it’s an area of research I’m paying closer attention to and will continue to personally use.

Number 3: Simple Health Advice That Makes the Biggest Difference

There’s so much noise in the health space right now—new protocols, new supplements, new “must-do” routines every week. That’s why I loved this recent thread from author Bill Gifford. It’s such a powerful reminder to come back to the basics.

Bill lays out five core ideas that really stuck with me.

I got a chance to talk about some of this with Bill—specifically, the power of sauna and his new book, Hotwired—on my podcast, and I can’t wait to share that episode with you. Stay tuned.

Number 4: Can Sauna Use Help Lower Nighttime Heart Rate?

Speaking of sauna, I’ve been doubling down on my own routine lately, especially because the gym I go to has this beautiful barrel sauna on the rooftop. I’ve started using it as a way to catch up with friends, too, which has been such a simple upgrade: heat, conversation, and connection all in one.

What’s interesting is that we’re starting to get more real-world data on what sauna is actually doing in the body.

The team at Terra recently analyzed tens of thousands of days of wearable data across 256 users, comparing sauna days vs. non-sauna days. And what they found was pretty remarkable: On sauna days, nighttime heart rate dropped by about three beats per minute—roughly a 5 percent decrease.

That’s not trivial. Lower nighttime heart rate is generally a sign that your body is shifting into a more parasympathetic, recovery-focused state.

Even more interesting, this effect held even after accounting for exercise, meaning it wasn’t just because people worked out harder on sauna days.

There was also a nuance for women: The benefit was strongest during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, which is great because it’s an extra tool women can use during what can sometimes be a more challenging time of the menstrual cycle.

Turns out, sauna use could be super powerful for nervous system recovery.

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

The Walking Study Your Parents (Or Maybe You) Need to See

Dhru Purohit — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Last week, I shared research on the minimum effective dose of exercise. How doing a little less than you think is still enough to dramatically change your health outcomes.

This week, I want to stay on that thread because I just finished recording one of the most powerful conversations I've had in a while, with Dr. Courtney Conley, on the underrated science of walking. Stay tuned for that episode.

It reminded me of a study I've been sitting on. And when I reread it, I knew I had to share it.

Not just for you. For someone in your life.

Maybe it's a parent. A sibling. A close friend who has been more sedentary since the pandemic, or retirement, or just the slow creep of a busy life that doesn't leave much room for movement.

My own parents are a perfect example of this dynamic. My dad is a natural mover. He has a walking group in his community that he's incredibly active with, and on any given day, he's logging somewhere between 12,000 and 18,000 steps without even thinking about it. Movement is just part of who he is.

My mom is a different story. She needs a nudge. And what I've learned is that when I tell her to "exercise more," it doesn't land. But when I tell her that 500 extra steps today is a great goal, something shifts. It feels real. It feels doable. It doesn't feel like another thing she's failing at.

That's exactly what today's newsletter is about.

If you have someone like that in your life, this one is for them.

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One of the Biggest Walking Studies Ever Done

Researchers analyzed data from 226,889 people across 17 different studies around the world. They tracked participants for a median of seven years and looked at one simple question: does the number of steps you walk each day affect how long you live?

The answer was unambiguous.

The more you walk, the lower your risk of dying. From anything.

The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, found that you don't need to hit some big ambitious number to start seeing the benefits. Benefits began at just 3,867 steps a day for all-cause mortality. For cardiovascular mortality specifically, the number was even lower: 2,337 steps.

That's less than a mile and a half of walking.

And then it gets even more interesting.

Every additional 1,000 steps was associated with a 15% lower risk of dying from any cause. Every additional 500 steps was associated with a 7% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Think about what that means in practice. If someone you love is currently at 3,000 steps a day and they get to 4,000, that's already meaningful. If they go from 4,000 to 5,000, that's another 15% drop in risk. Each step up the ladder matters.

The researchers looked at up to 20,000 steps a day and still didn't find a ceiling. More kept being better. But the biggest gains, the sharpest drop in the curve, came right at the bottom. That's where the people in your life who are least active have the most to gain.

What This Means If You're Over 60

The study also broke things down by age. For adults 60 and older, walking between 6,000 and 10,000 steps a day was associated with a 42% reduction in risk of death. For younger adults under 60, walking between 7,000 and 13,000 steps a day was associated with a 49% reduction.

For an older parent or family member who feels like it's too late or too hard, this data tells a different story. The bar is much lower than they think. And the payoff is enormous.

The lead researcher put it well: don't worry about where you're starting. Whether it's 3,000 or 4,000 steps, just try to improve. Every extra 500 or 1,000 steps is already working in your favor.

That's the message I share with my mom. Not a program. Not a goal that feels out of reach. Just 500 more steps than yesterday.

One Thing Worth Doing Today

Forward this to someone who needs it.

Not as a guilt trip. Not as pressure. Just as a quiet reminder that the gap between where they are and where the research says is "enough" might be much smaller than they think. A short walk around the block. A loop through the grocery store. Parking a little farther away.

It all counts.

Here's to your health.
Dhru Purohit

Try This – 3 Big Shares for the Week

Dhru Purohit — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:25:53 +0000

Try This community, today I have some good shares for you. We’re talking about colon cancer, thymus health, and the connection between memory and gut health.

Let’s get into it.

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Number 1: Colon Cancer and Immunotherapy Drugs

Colon and rectal cancer keep coming up in my world. It's now the leading cause of cancer death in people under 50, and I've personally known too many young, healthy people who've gotten this diagnosis.

So I was moved by the story of Mrinali Dhembla, a 26-year-old who was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer, only to have it completely wiped out in four months with a dual-immunotherapy regimen—no surgery, no chemo, no radiation. It's a good reminder that a lot of us in the wellness world, myself included, can have a bias against big pharma, but stories like this make you genuinely grateful for modern medicine and more motivated than ever to double down on the basics like exercise, fiber, and reducing toxins.

Number 2: Everyone’s Talking About Thymus Health

I've been noticing thymus health come up more and more in longevity and immune health conversations lately, and there's good reason for it.

Two landmark studies just published in Nature used AI to analyze the thymus scans of over 25,000 people and found that people with healthier thymus glands had dramatically lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality. For context, your thymus is the gland responsible for producing and training your T cells, the core of your immune defense, and it naturally shrinks and loses function as you age.

One of the most underappreciated drivers of thymus decline is poor sleep. Research shows that during deep sleep, your body releases growth hormone and key restorative signals that support thymic tissue repair and T cell production.

The thymus actually follows its own circadian rhythm, meaning T cell development and output are timed to the sleep-wake cycle. When that rhythm gets disrupted by late-night screen time, circadian misalignment, chronic caffeine use, or sleep apnea, cortisol levels rise and thymus activity is suppressed, accelerating the very shrinkage we want to avoid.

Protecting your sleep isn't just about energy or mood. It may be one of the most direct things you can do to keep your immune system (especially your Thymus) from aging you.

Number 3: Gut-brain communication can reverse memory problems

I know this is a mouse study, but it's pretty wild. A new Stanford study just published in Nature found that your memory decline may not actually be starting in your brain. It may be starting in your gut.

As we age, our gut microbiome shifts in ways that trigger inflammation, which disrupts the vagus nerve's ability to signal the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory. When researchers gave young mice the gut microbiomes of old mice, the young mice started performing on memory tests like old animals.

Then things got really interesting. When they stimulated the vagus nerve in the older animals, the cognitive decline reversed!

We tend to assume memory decline is just a brain problem. Turns out it may be a gut problem. It's a powerful reminder that everything we talk about for gut health in this newsletter, more fiber, fermented foods, less processed food, and reducing our toxic load, is also one of the most direct investments we can make in our brains.

See you next week for more shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit