Over 60? Healthy Lifestyle Change May Help Boost Your Brain Piedmont Orthopedics

WEDNESDAY, July 30, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Two years’ involvement in applications targeted on wholesome consuming, common train and “brain training” workouts seems to have helped a variety of older adults — even these at heightened danger for Alzheimer’s — keep away from cognitive decline, a brand new examine finds.

The findings, offered Monday on the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto, “encourage us to look at the potential for a combination of a lifestyle program and drug treatment as the next frontier in our fight against cognitive decline and possibly dementia,” stated Dr. Joanne Pike, president of the Alzheimer’s Association.

The analysis, generally known as the U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER), is funded by the affiliation. 

The examine concerned greater than 2,100 folks aged 60 to 79 who have been enrolled at 5 tutorial facilities throughout the U.S.  

To qualify for enrollment, folks needed to have had sure danger components for cognitive decline — a sedentary way of life, a “suboptimal” weight-reduction plan, poorer coronary heart and metabolic well being, and a household historical past of reminiscence impairment. 

These at-risk people have been then requested over two years to assist flip a few of these danger components round. 

For instance, they have been requested to desert their beforehand unhealthy diets and undertake the MIND diet, identified to be particularly helpful for the mind.  

They have been additionally requested to get off the sofa and meet health targets targeted on cardio, resistance and stretching workouts. 

Finally, contributors have been requested to often train their brains, through each day “cognitive challenges” (utilizing a program known as BrainHQ coaching), plus different mental and social actions. 

Participants met often with a workers clinicians to examine in on their progress with varied facets of this system, through 38 “peer meetings” held over the 2 years of the examine.

A second group was concerned in comparable applications however in a much less structured, extra self-directed approach. Only six staff conferences have been held, which inspired “self-selected way of life adjustments that greatest match their wants and schedules,” the Alzheimer’s Association said.

In all, 89% of participants stuck with the program to the end.

The results for brain health were impressive, Pike said. 

When it came to to protecting people from normal, age-related declines in brainpower, “the intervention was effective across a broad, representative group — regardless of sex, ethnicity, APOE genetic risk or heart health status — demonstrating its applicability and scalability for communities across the country,” she said. (Certain forms of the APOE gene can put people at lower or higher risk for Alzheimer’s dementia.)

The researchers reported a statistically significant rise in participants’ “world cognitive composite scores” over the two years. These are scores of overall cognitive health that incorporate factors such as memory, attention, language abilities and executive function, skills that help people multitask and plan.

The benefit was more pronounced among those who took part in the more structured form of the program. 

One expert stressed that the brain-preserving benefits occurred without the help of any pharmaceuticals.

“The next generation of treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s will likely integrate drug and non-drug strategies,” said Heather Snyder, the Alzheimer’s Association study’s primary investigator and senior vice president of medical and scientific relations.

Pike agreed.

“As the burden of dementia grows worldwide, U.S. POINTER affirms a vital public health message: healthy behavior has a powerful impact on brain health,” she said. 

More information

Find out more about brain health at the Mayo Clinic.

SOURCE: Alzheimer’s Association, information launch, July 28, 2025