April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month. This chronic, progressive neurological disorder cannot be cured. But as the years roll by, more and more effective medications and therapies are available to allow it to be controlled for longer periods of time and giving patients an improved quality of life.

Major symptoms of the disease are tremor at rest, often of one limb on one side and eventually moving to the other side. Slowness of movement, rigidity and balance continue to be seen in PD patients. There are many more symptoms that appear in one patient or another, but not all PD patients exhibit the same symptoms. In fact, PD is unique in that no two patients exhibit the disease in the same way.

This disease affects more people than all other movement-disorder patients combined. It can affect people at any age, but the usual age of onset is over 60.

PD affects more than 35,000 people in Michigan, and over a.million in the U.S. Approximately 60,000 Americans receive a PD diagnosis each year.

The Michigan Parkinson Foundation was created to help PD patients and their families cope with this chronic disease. They provide services such as information, referrals, educational programs, medication assistance, adult day care assistance, the services of over 50 support groups in the state and more.

One of the support groups is located right here in Dickinson County, the Parkinson Society. Meetings are monthly on the fourth Thursday at 1 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church on Hamilton Avenue in Kingsford.

This support group has been in existence for seven years and addresses the needs beyond those handled by the health care system. It provides a place to exchange information, share common concerns, and to work on ways to learn more about effective methods of coping with everyday problems. The support and education helps to give the patient a greater sense of control over the disease.

This support group sponsored five wonderful symposiums for the benefit of PD patients and families, with speakers knowledgeable in a variety of aspects of Parkinson’s. The pandemic put a stop to those gatherings. However, information, activities,programs, speakers are available on television, the internet, ZOOM, to enhance PD patients knowledge of the disease they are dealing with.

For information from the Michigan Parkinson Foundation call 1-800-852-9781 or 1-248-433-1011 or www.parkinsonsmi.org. Locally, call 906-774-0332.