The Alzheimer’s Association is getting ready to dispatch an examination to check whether lifestyle changes in more established Americans can stave off the advancement of dementia.
The examination — called the US POINTER study — depends on an investigation done in Finland beginning in 2014. That 2014 examination was the FINGER study , otherwise called the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability.
Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer Maria Carrillo said Finnish analysts needed to realize what might occur if older individuals in danger for Alzheimer’s made a progression of lifestyle changes.
“When they combined nutrition, physical activity, cognitive stimulation through a computer program, and aggressive cardiovascular control, they found that over two years of doing this they reduced their cognitive decline by 30 percent,” Carrillo said. “Thirty percent!”
Carrillo, who talked at the UT Health San Antonio South Texas Alzheimer’s Conference in late February, said that is exciting, yet the cultural and racial makeup of the United States is somewhat not quite the same as that of Finland.
“We don’t all go to college. We don’t have socialized health care. We’re not all Caucasian. We don’t all eat fish,” Carrillo said.
So the US POINTER study depends on the FINGER study however with a couple of changes that will enable American practitioners understand what impact lifestyle changes may have on this populace.
“We’re going to study 2,000 people with a study in the United States that’s going to adapt to the American style of culture and living,” Carrillo said.
Volunteers in US POINTER will be followed for two years. One group will participate in a particular lifestyle program like the one utilized in Finland. The other will be given healthy lifestyle guidance and urged to plan a program that accommodates their individual needs. Both groups will be assessed for changes in cognizance every six months. Scientists will likewise follow their vascular and metabolic health, physical function, mood and quality of life.
The individuals who take on the examination will be between ages 60 and 79. They will have been distinguished as at expanded hazard for cognitive decrease, yet they won’t yet have demonstrated any symptoms of decline.
Carrillo said testing interventions in this populace before they begin indicating symptoms may give analysts direction on the best way to best postpone the onset of cognitive decay. In the event that you can do that, Carrillo stated, you can defer the beginning of Alzheimer’s.
“We hope to be able to come up with a recipe that we can give people and say, ‘Do this, because it’s been shown to help you,’” Carrillo said.
