At 62, Phyllis Jones felt trapped in the darkness. She was hurt by her mother’s recent death, ongoing pandemic stress, and an increasingly toxic work environment. A sudden panic attack led to medical leave.
Her depression worsened to the day her 33-year-old son said sadly.
“For me, it was a wake-up call,” Jones, now 66, told CNN. “That’s when I found pointer research and my life changed. What I accomplished during my research was incredible. I’m a new person.”
Protecting brain health through risk-reducing lifestyle interventions or US pointer research is the largest randomized clinical trial in the United States designed to investigate whether lifestyle interventions can protect cognitive function in older adults.
“These were cognitively healthy people between the ages of 60 and 79, and during the study they were completely sedentary and at risk of dementia due to health issues such as prediabetes and borderline blood pressure.”
Approximately half of the 2,111 study participants attended 38 structured team meetings over two years in local areas near Chicago, Houston, Winston-Salem, Sacramento, California, and Providence, Rhode Island. During each session, trained facilitators provided guidance on how to exercise and eat for the brain, explaining the importance of socialization, the use of brain training games, and the fundamentals of brain health. The team leader was also responsible for the group for blood pressure and other vital logging. Physical and cognitive tests by the physician occurred every six months.
At six team meetings, the other half of the study participants were encouraged to learn about brain health and choose the lifestyle changes that best suited their schedule. This group was self-guided without goal-oriented coaching. These participants took physical and cognitive tests every six months.
The two-year results of a $50 million study funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Association were simultaneously published on Monday at the 2025 Alzheimer’s Disease Association International Conference in Toronto and were published in the JAMA magazine.
“We found that people in structured programs appear to delay people who don’t receive the same degree of support by nearly a year or two beyond the self-directed group,” Baker said. “However, the Self-Guide Group improved its cognitive score over time.”
Exercise, diet and socialization are important
Exercise was my first challenge. Like other groups across the country, Jones and the team in Aurora, Illinois received lessons on YMCA membership and how to use gym equipment. Jones was told to use aerobic exercise to raise his heart rate for 30 minutes a day, adding strength training and stretching several times a week.
It wasn’t easy at first.
Study participants were wearing fitness trackers that monitor activities, Jones said. “After the first 10 minutes, I was sweating and tired,” she said. “But we went slowly, adding 10 minutes at a time. We were honest with each other. Now I just love to exercise.”
Four weeks later, the team was given a new challenge. Delayed neurodegeneration, or started a Mediterranean dash intervention for mind diets. This meal combines the best Mediterranean diet with the salt restrictions of the dash diet. This represents a dietary approach to stop hypertension.
“They gave us a refrigerator chart that includes foods we limit and foods we enjoy,” Jones said. “Most days I had to eat berries and vegetables, which contained green and leafy vegetables, which was another item.
It contains foods that contain deep fried foods, processed meats, dairy products, cheese and butter. There were also restrictions on sweet treats in place. “But you can also dessert four times a week,” Jones added. “You’re not taking away yourself entirely, so that’s great.”
Another pillar of the program was to require study participants to become familiar with vital signs, a bakery in Wake Forest said. “At one point, if you ask, ‘What is your average blood pressure?’, they should be able to tell us,” she said. “We have encouraged people to monitor their blood sugar levels as well.”
Brain training was then carried out through membership to a popular web-based cognitive training app. Some scientists say the benefits of such online brain programs have not yet been proven, but Jones said he enjoys mental stimulation.
Being good at socializing was another important part of the program. Researchers left the team to their duties, talking to strangers and going out with friends.
“I found my best friend, Patty Kelly, on my team,” Jones said. “I’m 81 and she’s older than me, but we do all sorts of things together. In fact, when I talk at the Alzheimer’s conference, she’s coming to Toronto with me.
“Isolation is scary to your brain,” she added. “But when you get to where you move and eat healthy, your energy levels change and you automatically become more social.”
As research progressed, researchers reduced check-ins twice a month and then once a month, Baker said.
“We were trying to get people to say, ‘I’m healthy right now.’ Because if you believe it, you have begun a decision to agree with your new perception,” she said.
“So we were holding their hands at first, but at the end they were flying themselves,” Baker added. “And that was the whole idea. Let them fly yourself.”
The researchers closely followed each team, so there is a wealth of data that has not yet been mined.
“Anytime I was able to enter a web-based data system and see how much exercise someone was doing, whether they were logged in to their brain training that day, their latest mind diet scores and whether they attended their final team meeting,” Baker says.
“There are also sleep data, blood biomarkers, brain scans, and other variables, which make it more clear what part of the intervention was most successful.”
It is important to dig deeper into the data as the research has limitations, such as the possibility of a well-known phenomenon known as practical effects.
“We use different stimuli within our tests, but we are familiar with the situation with the act of repeating the tests over and over. We are used to where the clinic is, where we park, and the examiner,” she said.
“You’re not really smart. You’re just relaxed and comfortable. So you’ll make the test even better,” Baker said. “So, it appears that both groups of US Pointers have improved their global perception (thinking, learning, problem solving), but we must be careful about interpretation.”
It is important to note that pointer research is not designed to provide the more immersive lifestyle interventions needed for people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, San Francisco medicine.
Ornish announced the clinical trial for June 2024. This has discovered a strict vegan diet, daily exercise, structured stress reduction, and frequent socialization. It often stops the decline and improves cognition of people at risk, as well as those who have already experienced early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“The US Pointer Randomized Clinical Trial is a groundbreaking study showing that moderate lifestyle changes, such as diet, exercise and socialization, can improve cognition among people at risk for dementia,” says creator of the Ornish Diet and Lifestyle Medicine Program, “Undo It!: How Simple Lifestyle Changes Overturn Most Chronic Diseases.”
“It complements randomized clinical trial findings that found that more intensive multiple lifestyle changes often improve cognition in people diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s,” Ornish said. “However, a US pointer study showed that milder lifestyle changes could be sufficient to prevent it.”
In fact, Maria Carillo, a researcher for Maria Carillo, Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, said two years aren’t enough to track brain changes over time.
“We really want to make recommendations based on evidence,” Carillo told CNN. “That’s why we invested an additional $40 million over four years of follow-up, and I think more than 80% of the former participants participated.
“Brain health is a long game,” she added. “It’s hard to track, but changes make sense over time.”
