NPR reports on a study of 2,100 ordinary, not super fit people in their 60s and 70s who spent two years on an intensive regimen of diet, exercise, socializing, and brain training, and found they experienced dramatic results in their ability to remember and think clearly:
Results of what’s known as the POINTER study were reported at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto. They were published simultaneously in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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The POINTER study was limited to people ages 60 to 79 who had normal memory and thinking but were at elevated risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
“You had to be sedentary, not a regular exerciser, and you had to be consuming a suboptimal diet,” Baker says.
Half the participants were asked to come up with their own plan to eat better and exercise more.
The other half entered an intensive, highly structured program that included aerobic exercise four times a week, adherence to a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, online cognitive training, mandatory social activities and monitoring levels of blood pressure and blood sugar.
Both groups improved on tests of memory and cognition, but the intensive group did markedly better.
Though difficult, the intensive regimen was “life-changing” for many participants, Baker says. Most were able to make substantial and lasting changes, thanks to coaching, supervision and lots of encouragement, she says.
“There is no way to form a new habit or change behavior without intentional work on a regular basis,” Baker says. “It’s impossible.”