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Presbyterian Villages of Michigan is committed to serving seniors and communities. It’s our goal to be a first-line provider of resources, including information. Aging should be an adventure, not a scary trip!

In the PVM Blog, the experts at PVM will regularly publish articles and information. Topics may range from smart ways to age in place in your long-time home, to tips on how to shop for a senior community. We will have articles on transportation, wellness, nutrition, technology, activities, outlook-on-life, and more.

Please let us know your ideas for topics and comments on our articles. We succeed as seniors in our community have the best Aging Adventure!

When it comes to getting older, a lot of people have a lot of opinions on what to expect but how much of it is true? Below are some statements taken from the “Facts on Aging Quiz” first developed by renowned gerontologist Dr. Erdman Palmore in 1977 and revised by Dr. Linda Breytspraak and Lynn Badura of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2015*. Do you know which ones are true and which ones are false? I’ll publish the answers in next month’s column. If you just can’t wait until then, you can view all the statements and answers by typing this URL into the address bar of your favorite web browser: http://aging.umkc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Facts-on-Aging-Quiz.pdf

During a recent visit to the Village of Sage Grove in Kalamazoo, Administrator Paula Hager took me for a stroll through their community garden to see their newly planted Living Memorial Tree.  The idea for the tree sprang from a comment Paula overheard during the funeral of a resident who had recently died. Reflecting on the person who had passed, she heard someone remark, “we should plant a tree.” That simple comment put into motion what this spring and summer became a community wide effort to create an accessible space on the Sage Grove campus to honor the residents who spent the last years of their lives at the Village.

In December I introduced you to MESH, which is an acronym that stands for Move, Eat, Sleep, Heal. It was coined by renowned geriatrician Dr. Bill Thomas and is what he considers to be the key to healthy aging. This month I will focus on the last letter: “H” (Heal).

“Vee Eye See Tee Oh Are Why”* is that your Village’s battle cry? If you’re having a challenge deciphering the battle cry, try reading it again but this time read it out loud. So, is it your Village’s battle cry? Is your Village ready for this year’s Village Victory Cup?

This month we have a special guest columnist, Victoria Macioce-Stumpf. Victoria is a student at Oakland University in their Wellness, Health Promotion, & Injury Prevention program who is interning with PVM.

As a person ages, they may begin to notice gradual changes in their memory, how they process things or even their ability to perform certain tasks. While most changes may be age-related, it is important to determine if there are any signs or symptoms of early Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a progressive and degenerative brain disease that may begin in middle or old age and is characterized by memory loss, confusion, behavioral changes and more.