Diet, exercise or nothing at allThe study was a first, said Blumenthal, who has long studied the effects of diet and exercise on depression and overall cardiac health. During the last three months of the study, this group exercised at home, filling out compliance logs that were monitored by research staff. But after just six months of exercising and following the DASH diet, their executive function improved by nine years, bringing their mental age down to 84. "We can positively improve executive function with lifestyle interventions more quickly, but memory takes longer to respond," he said. "It could be that if this study had continued for 18 months or used a different type of brain diet, memory too would have improved."

Source: CNN December 19, 2018 21:00 UTC