Exercise & diet improve cognitive function

[NHE]

Could A PERSONALIZED Exercise Program Save Your Brain?

Randomized controlled trials answer the question: Could exercise save your brain? with yes. Following a DASH diet as well may help even more.

Joe Graedon - July 31, 2025

https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/article ... your-brain


There are a couple of health problems that everyone dreads. A diagnosis of cancer is most unwelcome. Neurological conditions run a close second, though. If a doctor diagnoses Parkinson’s disease or ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease), the patient has a right to be frightened. Equally devastating is a diagnosis of dementia. Could a personalized exercise intervention improve cognitive function and perhaps delay the onset of dementia? In other words, might exercise save your brain? A few studies suggest the answer could be yes, especially when combined with other strategies, such as a healthy diet, cognitive training and socially engaging activities.

Personalized Exercised vs. “Go Exercise”

Most healthcare professionals tell their patients to eat healthy food, don’t smoke and exercise! I am not going to say such advice is worthless, but most people have heard that message for decades. It has not had a major impact on heart disease, diabetes or cognitive function. Why not?

Most of us like to think we are following our doctors’ recommendations. And yet we are often seduced by tasty snacks. We intend to exercise, but if it’s too hot or too cold or too wet, we skip a workout. If we’re too busy working or doing other activities, we skip a workout. If we just don’t feel energized, we skip a workout. There are so many excuses, it’s easy to find a reason not to exercise.

Structured Exercise to Save Your Brain!

What does work? A study published in JAMA (July 28, 2025) reveals the answer! The title of this research is: “Structured vs Self-Guided Multidomain Lifestyle Interventions for Global Cognitive Function“

OK, that’s a tad technical. Here is how the authors describe the Key Points of their research:

“Question  Can multidomain lifestyle interventions improve or protect cognitive function in older adults at risk of cognitive decline and dementia?

“Meaning  The structured, higher-intensity intervention had a greater benefit on global cognition than the self-guided, low-intensity intervention. Further research is needed to understand clinical significance and longer-term cognitive effects of both interventions.”

Let’s Dig Deeper:

What makes this research so compelling is the methodology. Investigators recruited more than 2,000 volunteers at 5 clinical sites in the United States. They were between 60 and 79 years of age and at higher risk for dementia. That’s because these recruits had a sedentary lifestyle and a suboptimal diet. In addition, they had other risk factors such as a family history of memory impairment or metabolic problems.

Does any of that seem familiar? Do you sit a lot? Watch more than an hour of TV daily? Is your diet less than optimal? Any members of the family ever have memory problems, diabetes, high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol levels? If so, read on!

Half the recruits were randomly assigned to a structured lifestyle intervention program. The other half were on their own in a self-guided program. Those who participated in the structured group received aerobic, resistance, stretching and balance exercise training at a community facility. They were encouraged to follow the MIND diet, which is a combination of a Mediterranean and DASH diet approach.

In addition, the structured lifestyle intervention group got cognitive training on computers and participated in socially-engaging activities and had their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose measured regularly.

Both groups showed improvement in their cognitive scores, but the people who had intensive structured interventions did significantly better over the two years of the study. In other words, when people were encouraged by “intervention navigators and interventionists” they showed up and participated actively in exercise.

[Continued]