The dementia has become one of the fastest growing neurological conditions in the world. This makes everyday tasks difficult because it can also affect their personality in a person’s memory, their thinking, the skills of logic, their behavior and advanced stages.

While there is no cure, some drugs can help slow the aging process. This is why emerging research is providing valuable insight on how we can stop, or at least delay, the onset of dementia, especially in high risk people.

A new study published in Jama Network shows that a structured, multi-dimensional lifestyle approach can improve brain function in older adults that are at risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

Research conducted in the United States included 2,111 old adults with an average age of 68. In a period of two years, the participants followed either a structured lifestyle program or low intensity, self-directed version.

The structured program included regularly medium to high-spurious physical activity, Mind diet (a brain-healthy eating plan), attached to cognitive and social activities, and monitoring of heart health.

The mind is a hybrid of the diet, small for the Mediterranean-Dash intervention for neurodigenerative delay, a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and dash diet (dietary approach to prevent high blood pressure). But it goes one step forward by targeting nutrients associated with brain health and cognitive function.

Major brain-boosting components of mind diet include:

• Flavonoids and polyphenols from fruits, vegetables, tea and dark chocolate
• Folylets from leafy greens and legumes
• Oli fish, seeds and nuts omega -3 fatty acids

Compared to normal healthy food guidelines, the mind diet gives special emphasis on daily consumption of green leafy vegetables and weekly servings of berries and fish foods that are known to nourish neurons and reduce brain inflammation.

Results: Small but significant cognitive promotion

Those who follow the structured program showed a slightly better improvement in their overall brain function, or “global cognition” in the self-directed group.

Although the difference may look smaller, it was statistically important. The self-directed group improved the cognitive score of the group structured by standard deviation units per year as compared to 0.213.

“Such lifestyle interventions, although the effect is modest, is promising,” the authors said. “This indicates that non-drug-based strategies targeting many risk factors can occur in a safe, accessible and relatively low-cost manner to protect the brain health.”

Health facilities

The structured program appeared to benefit people regardless of its genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease (eg bearer of APOE 4 genes).

Interestingly, people with low cognitive scores at the beginning of the study saw a little more profit than those starting with high scores.

Low side effects

In terms of safety, the structured group reported less serious and serious adverse events than a self-guided group.

However, the Covid-19 infection was more common in those in the structured group, which is likely to be due to high-in-Person activity.

No treatment, but one step ahead

While cognitive reforms were not dramatic, researchers believe that findings are important.

It requires more studies to see how long these benefits last and can they make meaningful improvements in daily functioning.

But for now, this study increases weight that doctors have long considered: a healthy lifestyle is good for both body and brain.