The goal of this article was to look at the problem of Alzheimer's disease (AD) through the lens of a socioecological resilience-thinking framework to help expand our view of the prevention and treatment of AD. This serious and complex public health problem requires a holistic systems approach. We present the view that resilience thinking, a theoretical framework that offers multidisciplinary approaches in ecology and natural resource management to solve environmental problems, can be applied to the prevention and treatment of AD. Resilience thinking explains a natural process that occurs in all complex systems in response to stressful challenges. The brain is a complex system, much like an ecosystem, and AD is a disturbance (allostatic overload) within the ecosystem of the brain. Resilience thinking gives us guidance, direction, and ideas about how to comprehensively prevent and treat AD and tackle the AD epidemic.

A 62-year-old man originally from Ghana presented with a 2-month history of rapidly progressive cognitive decline. The patient was unable to continue managing the family finances, quit his job as a respiratory therapist, and was neglecting his personal hygiene. He was noted to have occasional word-finding difficulties and his handwriting became less legible. He was having increasing problems with gait instability, leading to many near falls. Further questioning revealed that subtle cognitive changes had started about 1 year prior to presentation, with the patient's wife noticing that her husband was avoiding driving on highways due to the fear of getting lost, forgetting directions, and becoming more argumentative. He was previously in good health except for a history of coronary artery bypass surgery and hypertension. There was no history of exposure to toxic chemicals or chemotherapy for any malignant tumors. His last visit to Ghana was 6 years prior to presentation. On physical examination, spasticity in the lower extremities was noted with a spasticataxic gait. Reflexes at the knees were brisker than in the arms (3+), with nonsustained clonus at both ankles. A positive Hoffman sign was present bilaterally. Plantar responses were flexor bilaterally. A startle reflex was absent. Mental status examination revealed disorientation to date and significantly impaired short-term recall and visuospatial memory with limited attention span. Speech was tangential and fluent, with frequent paraphasic errors and difficulty naming objects. Dilated eye examination results were normal.