To evaluate whether there is an effective treatment strategy, the researchers initiated a pilot study of 69 individuals, ages 51 to 71, looking at the effects of a walking program (ie, aerobic exercise) combined with a brain training intervention on cognitive function in people receiving care for heart failure.

The testing group comprised 54% women and 55% African Americans. The subjects, all of whom had been diagnosed with heart failure and who had confirmed brain fog, were divided into three groups:

• BrainHQ training plus walking

• Walking alone

• Usual care (ie, stretching and flexibility class offered by the New York Heart Association)

There are many cognitive training programs that have shown no beneficial effect or had poor results. However, BrainHQ has more than 150 published papers showing benefits from BrainHQ exercises, says Henry Mahncke, Ph.D. and CEO of the San Francisco-based Posit Science, who developed the memory training games that were used in the study.

The researchers looked at both brain training and physical activity because physical activity is the recommended treatment (called the standard of care), in order to see if they could improve on the standard of care.

One group followed a traditional care plan while the second group did aerobic exercises during their follow-up. The third group was instructed to do both aerobic exercises and brain training exercises. The researchers concluded that participants in the combined aerobic exercise and cognitive training program improved their verbal memory “significantly” after three months,