Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for preventing Alzheimer’s disease

•Preventing early stages of AD may be the only way of reducing the prevalence of AD.•A review of the literature supporting the rationale for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for AD.•CBT can involve activities that reduce some of the known and salient risk factors associated with AD.•CBT for treating the risks of AD is well within our known technology and can be instituted at low costs. This review provides the rationale for implementing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There are known risk factors associated with the development of AD, some of which may be ameliorated with CBT. We posit that treating the risk factors of inactivity, poor diet, hyposmia and anosmia, sleep disorders and lack of regularly engaged challenging cognitive activity will modify the physiology of the brain sufficiently to avoid the accumulation of excess proteins, including amyloid beta, causal events in the development of AD. Further, the successful treatment of the listed risk factors is well within our technology to do so and, even further, it is cost effective. Also, there is considerable scientific literature to support the proposition that, if implemented by well-established practices, CBT will be effective and will be engaged by those of retirement age. That is, we present a biologically informed CBT for the prevention of the development of AD, i.e., an aspect of applied behavioral neuroscience.