COCOA Trial Results Show Diet, Exercise Help Some with Dementia

The two-year, ISB-led Coaching for Cognition in Alzheimer’s (COCOA) trial was completed recently, and findings show that diet and exercise can help people suffering from dementia improve. ISB Senior Research Scientist Dr. Jared Roach, the principal investigator of the study, discussed the trial in an ISB Research Roundtable presentation. 

In his talk titled “The COCOA Trial: Diet and Exercise Ameliorate Dementia,” Roach touched on two major themes: the importance of a systems biology approach to studying complex problems, and how that approach was used in the COCOA trial. 

“This trial represents the blossoming of a couple of strategic initiatives that ISB has had,” he said. “One to implement systems biology as an approach to translational clinical medicine to discover treatments for medical conditions and improve wellness through systems biology, and the other to test to see whether or not we have an effective treatment or amelioration or even cure for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Results of the COCOA trial have been published in medRxiv, a preprint server. Roach will present his work at an upcoming Alzheimer’s disease conference, and will submit it to a peer-reviewed journal following. 

You can watch his Research Roundtable talk here or by playing the video above. 

Research Roundtable

ISB hosts several Research Roundtable conversations each year to feature our leading scientists discussing their latest research. These free, virtual events are designed for non-scientists, and are open to anyone interested in the topics.

Past Research Roundtable topics include how the gut microbiome affects drug response, long COVID, the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy, finding drugs to treat Tuberculosis, identifying markers for cancer years before diagnosis, and more. 

You can explore all past Research Roundtable talks and our other events here.