Big Breaking News in Brain Health Research: U.S. POINTER Study Top Line Results!

The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC 2025) is taking place now in Toronto, Canada.  It is arguably the biggest brain health and Alzheimer’s research conference in the world, and great news emerged from it just yesterday on brain healthy diet and living.  We’d like to share a quick summary of it with you now, and later in August, we’ll have a full article on what it means for brain health, aging, and Alzheimer’s prevention!  

The U.S. POINTER Study is the largest ever clinical trial conducted in the U.S. of how diet and lifestyle interventions might improve cognitive health and reduce risk of decline, and they just announced their top line results at AAIC.  This study is one of the most comprehensive studies undertaken to-date on this subject, recruiting over 2000 people to participate for two years in these interventions. 

The results are great news for anyone that wants to be proactive about their brain and cognitive health.   

The U.S. POINTER study concluded that lifestyle changes significantly improved cognition in older adults at risk for cognitive decline and dementia. 

The study had two groups.  The first had a “structured” approach with regular peer group meetings, adherence to the MIND diet, a prescribed activity and exercise program, brain exercises/games, social activities, and regular review of their metrics and goals. The second group in the study was “self-guided,” participating in just a few peer group meetings and selecting the recommended lifestyle changes that best fit their needs and schedules. 

You might recognize most of these lifestyle factors as those that are considered the “Six Pillars of Brain Health” that have individually been shown to improve various aspects of brain health and cognitive function in prior research.  The U.S. POINTER Study combined most of these lifestyle behaviors to track their impact in aggregate.  We’re also pleased to see the MIND diet was the core dietary intervention of the trial, where it played a central role in demonstrating how nutrition, paired with other healthy habits, can make a measurable impact on brain health. 

NeuroReserve is particularly proud that two of our Medical and Scientific Advisors were involved with this trial, both from Rush University Medical Center.  Jennifer Ventrelle R.D.N. was the Lead Dietitian of the study, and Thomas Holland M.D. was Study Clinician at the Chicago site.  Jennifer Ventrelle is also the author of the book The Official MIND Diet: A Scientifically Based Program to Lose Weight and Prevent Alzheimer's Disease.  We are very excited that Jennifer was selected to present aspects of the study at the AAIC conference yesterday. 

Pictured is NeuroReserve’s Medical Advisor, Jennifer Ventrelle, speaking on the U.S Pointer Study results in the 2025 AAIC conference.  

Even more good news from the study:  The structured group showed the most cognitive improvement, but the self-guided group also improved, showing that even modest changes can have an impact. Executive function, memory, and processing speed all showed some level of improvement for both groups.  The structured group showed cognitive function 1-2 years younger than what would be expected with well-documented normal aging.  The results were consistent across gender, ethnicity and presence of APOE4 gene.  Several of the researchers that presented the findings were optimistic that a longer duration of this program (beyond the two years of this study) would yield even more profound results.

Stay tuned:  We’ll release a deeper-dive article on U.S. POINTER later in August.  

Also, in the coming months, more data from this study will be available, particularly for the impact of specific nutritional components and biomarkers for various metrics over time. 

For more information on these “Six Pillar” behaviors and tips for getting started on your own brain healthy journey, you can download our free guide “6 Steps to Building Lasting Brain Power” here.