Try This - 4 Shares For The Week

I’ve got some good shares for you this week. 

High level:

1. A mind-blowing story from a leukemia patient

2. Women, if you’re worried about brain health, focus on these things

3. Why athletes need to be mindful of air pollution 

4. RIP Dolly Parton ❤️

Let’s get into it.

Number 1: Sunlight Helps Cancer Patients Heal

This is a wild story by ICU pulmonologist and past podcast guest Dr. Roger Seheult.

What makes this story even more interesting is that Roger says he personally reviewed the boy’s medical records and came away believing that sunlight played a major role in the turnaround.

And the turnaround was dramatic. According to Roger, after six days of spending time outside, the boy was off the BiPAP machine and breathing significantly better. Doctors repeated his CT scan, and the fungal infection that had nearly taken over his only remaining lung had almost completely disappeared. He ultimately recovered, finished chemotherapy, and is doing well today with one lung.

Roger sees this as part of a much bigger story. He points to research showing benefits from natural light and outdoor exposure in hospitalized patients and notes that some hospitals are even designing ICU spaces that allow critically ill patients to be taken outside while remaining connected to life-support equipment.

As readers of my newsletter know, this gets into something that Roger and many podcast guests have been talking about for years: photobiomodulation, or the idea that light can directly influence how our biology functions.

But recently, Roger took that idea even further. Roger coauthored a fascinating new paper proposing something called photometabolism. He argues that sunlight, particularly infrared light, may help electrons move more efficiently through our mitochondria and help our cells produce energy more efficiently.

That’s why Roger doesn’t view what happened with this boy as sunlight simply being “good for him.” He believes the light itself may have helped change what was happening inside his cells, giving his body the energy it needed to fight back alongside the antifungal treatment.

Here’s a link to a video that Daniel Scott Matthews, one of Roger’s followers, created that gives a fascinating overview of Roger’s ideas.

Number 2: Things That Matter More for a Woman’s Brainspan Than Any Supplement

I’m a big fan of my friend Louisa’s message to remind people (men and women) to double down on the basics and not get distracted by supplements. Supplements are great—I use them all the time (and so does Louisa)—BUT the basics matter most, especially when it comes to brain health. If you aren’t already following Louisa’s channel, make sure to subscribe on YouTube and check out our interview with her on all things Alzheimer's disease.

Number 3: Air Pollution Slows Runners Down

I’m weirdly mesmerized by all the ways that air pollution impacts our health, which is why I was fascinated by this study highlighted by top runner Brady Holmer.

Researchers looked at more than 2.7 million marathon times. They found that when levels of a traffic-related air pollutant called nitrogen dioxide, or NO₂, were moderately higher on race day, runners finished about 7–8 minutes slower on average.

That’s a pretty big difference from a change in air pollution that most people probably wouldn’t even notice.

One of the reasons I'm linking to this tweet and study is that indoor air in many homes is often more polluted than outdoor air, especially if people don't have good ventilation or HEPA filters. NO₂ in particular can build up in homes that have gas stoves but poor ventilation and filtration.

So if mildly poor outdoor air can slow a runner down, it's no wonder that many people lose focus or can't concentrate, especially when they don't track the quality of their poor indoor air.

Number 4: RIP Dolly Parton

We're paying homage in our household to the incredible life of singer Dolly Parton by not only playing her original songs but also covers from other artists who deeply respected her work.

One cover I came across last year was by the Persian artist Leila Forouhar singing Jolene. It’s such a classic song, and I love Leila’s disco version. Hat tip to the Grace Spelman Music Project on Instagram, which is where I first heard about it.

That’s it for this 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.