Try This –4 Big Shares for the Week

Try This family, today four big shares for you!

High level:

1. If your melatonin isn’t working, I have a hot tip! 

2. The anti-brain-aging hack we need to prioritize

3. Prioritizing THIS makes you happier and might even make you live longer

4. The case for keeping your home shoe-free
   
   

Number 1: Hot Tip for Melatonin Takers

If you take melatonin, but you’re not having any luck with sleep, you definitely want to read this research-backed tip from Dr. William Wallace. Turns out, when it comes to taking melatonin, timing is everything.

Most people treat melatonin like a sleeping pill: something you take right before bed to knock yourself out. But melatonin isn’t actually a sedative. It’s a chronobiotic, meaning its real job is to signal your internal clock that it’s nighttime. And when you take it might actually matter more than how much you take.

Your body follows something called a phase response curve, which shows how melatonin shifts your circadian rhythm depending on timing. Research suggests the biggest sleep benefit happens when melatonin is taken about three hours before your usual bedtime. That timing can help shift your internal clock earlier, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up naturally.

Take it right at bedtime, though, and the opposite can happen. Instead of helping you drift off, it may actually push your internal clock later over time, meaning you could gradually start falling asleep later, not sooner.

Try this: If you use melatonin, experiment with timing it a few hours before bed rather than right before lights out. 

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of using melatonin every night, and when I do use melatonin, I opt for the plant-sourced version called Herbatonin. It works great for sleep, and I used their 3mg version for jet lag recovery.

Number 2: The Exercise That Makes Your Brain Younger

If you or anyone you know has been looking for that push to pick up heavy weights, this is it. Turns out, the brain-protective and enhancing benefits of resistance training are undeniable. 

A new randomized trial has found that resistance exercise slows brain aging, not just strengthens muscles. 

In the study, adults around retirement age were randomly assigned to heavy resistance training, moderate resistance training, or a non-exercise control group for one year. Researchers used advanced brain imaging and “brain aging clocks” (models that predict your brain’s apparent age based on how it functions) to see how the brain changed over time.

Both moderate and heavy resistance workouts were linked with significantly lower brain age compared with the control group. In other words, people who regularly lifted weights showed brains that looked 1.4–2.3 years younger than expected for their chronological age after the year-long program. 

These changes were seen across the whole brain, not just in isolated regions, and were reflected in stronger functional connectivity, especially in areas involved in complex thinking and executive skills.

This suggests that resistance training, which is often thought of primarily for muscles and metabolism, also has powerful neuroprotective effects. Better physical strength could translate to slower brain aging and potentially lower risk of cognitive decline as we age.

Start picking up those weights!

Number 3:  Is Your Social Life Aging You?

We often hear that social connection is good for our health, but a large study of over 7,000 adults aged 50+ suggests it may go deeper than mood or happiness…it could actually influence how fast your body ages.

Researchers analyzed data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and looked at different types of social connection: structural (like living alone or social network size), functional (support and loneliness), and quality (relationship strain). They compared these factors to two measures: how old people felt (subjective age) and how old their bodies appeared biologically (physiological age), calculated from cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and respiratory markers.

Here’s the surprising part: Weak social connections didn’t consistently make people feel older, but they did correlate with faster biological aging. For example, people who lived alone had bodies that appeared about 2.6 years older physiologically than those living with others, and those with low social support showed about 1.9 years of accelerated biological aging. Meanwhile, strong social integration was linked with slower biological aging.

Interestingly, subjective age and biological age were almost completely unrelated; most people felt younger than they were, even when their bodies showed signs of faster aging.

Researchers suggest that weak social ties may affect stress systems, inflammation, immune function, and repair processes, all biological pathways closely tied to aging.

This is why I will preach the importance of community forever. Treat social connection like a health habit. Prioritize regular interaction, community activities, and supportive relationships—for happiness and longevity. 

Number 4:  Please Take Off Your Shoes Before Entering the House

I grew up in, and continue to maintain, a shoe-free home. Why? This post reminded me.

According to the post, we drag 400,000 different types of bacteria into our home when we leave our shoes on. Yuck! Also, if you have kids or grandkids crawling on your floor, they could be even more susceptible to those bacteria. Do yourself a favor and leave your shoes outside if possible! And if you have a friend that insists on wearing shoes in their home, send them this newsletter lol.

See you next week. 

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.