Aging Brains Can Get Younger with Diet, Exercise, and Brain Training

A groundbreaking study has found that a combination of diet, exercise, and brain training can significantly improve thinking and memory in older Americans. The study, known as the POINTER study, involved over 2,100 sedentary individuals in their 60s and 70s who participated in an intensive regimen for two years. The results showed that not only did their mental abilities improve, but they also reduced the usual declines associated with aging.

According to Laura Baker, one of the study’s principal investigators and a professor of gerontology and geriatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the participants obtained cognitive function scores similar to those of people one to two years younger than themselves. “This is really showing that we can change people’s trajectories over time,” says Jessica Langbaum of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, who was not involved in the research.

The study was limited to individuals at risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, and participants were required to be sedentary and consume a suboptimal diet. Half of the participants were asked to come up with their own plan to eat better and exercise more, while the other half entered an intensive, highly structured program that included aerobic exercise, a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, online cognitive training, and social activities.

While both groups improved on tests of memory and cognition, the intensive group did markedly better. The study’s results are consistent with earlier findings from a smaller Finnish study and decades of research suggesting that single interventions, such as exercise, can reduce brain and cognitive changes associated with aging.

The Alzheimer’s Association spent nearly $50 million conducting the POINTER study, and the National Institutes of Health spent an even greater amount to have many of the participants undergo brain scans, blood tests, and sleep studies. The results are limited to changes in normal brain aging, not Alzheimer’s disease. However, scientists believe that lifestyle changes that improve cognition and reduce “brain age” are likely to delay dementia, including Alzheimer’s.

The Alzheimer’s Association is planning to invest another $40 million over four years to implement what they’ve learned from the POINTER study. “The translation from the POINTER prescription to how we then deliver that into the community is absolutely the next step,” says study co-author Heather Snyder, a senior vice president at the Alzheimer’s Association.

Implementing the study’s findings nationwide will require buy-in from the nation’s health care providers, who should treat lifestyle interventions as they would a drug, says Langbaum. Doctors should prescribe regimens like the one in POINTER and get insurance companies to cover those prescriptions. Additionally, study results still in the works, including analyses of brain scans and blood tests, are expected to provide more insights into the relationship between cognitive improvement and brain health.

In the meantime, Langbaum advises even healthy individuals to up their game. “If you already do the Sunday crossword puzzle and it’s not challenging, pick up something new, find that exercise regimen that you’ll adhere to,” she says. “And if you can do it around people, that’s even better.”