My Mom and Dad

The Vision

Trips Down Memory Lane envisions a world where all people, diagnosed with dementia, have an opportunity to enhance their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being by spending time in nature and visiting locations of happy memories.

The Mission

Trips Down Memory Lane provides individuals who have dementia and are housed in memory care units, an opportunity to leave the facility for short, chaperoned trips to parks, gardens, or other meaningful locations. Our focus is on personalized, one-on-one interactions with our clients.

Many people with dementia reside in locked units at memory care centers. This confinement is meant to ensure their safety. Unfortunately, it greatly reduces the size of their world.

At Trips Down Memory Lane, we believe everyone can benefit from being outdoors in nature or simply experiencing time away from the confines of a facility. What we do is ‘open the door’ for people with dementia. We provide safe, supervised excursions to locations that evoke happy memories and also allow our clients to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.

Brandywine Park, Delaware

Inspiration

My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2017. After a long battle with the disease, she passed away in March 2022.

My parents had lived in New Jersey. After my dad’s passing in November 2021, my family and I made the decision to move my mom to a memory care unit in Pennsylvania closer to me. I wanted to spend more time with her as we were navigating through the challenges of her disease.

It was a tough transition for my mom, just having lost her husband of over 60 years, and moving to a new place with new faces. She was experiencing depression, anxiety, and fear.

After moving to the memory care unit, I was able to visit her every day. We enjoyed activities that she loved when she was healthier. She was a beloved piano teacher for over 50 years and was also talented artistically. In the memory care unit, we would enjoy doing arts and crafts, while listening to her favorite classical music. Prior to her illness, she was also exceptionally skilled at Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging. She always had a gift for finding the perfect branches, leaves, and flowers and she arranged them with complete harmony and balance. At the memory care, I would bring her flowers and vases and let her work her magic.

My mom also loved parks and gardens. On weekends my husband, Martin, and I would take her to beautiful places like Longwood Gardens. Spending time outdoors was instrumental to her healing process. I could see that it transformed her personality more closely to the mom that I grew up with. Her brain seemed to come ‘online’ as we strolled through the rows of flowers. She was sharper, happier, and closer to her old self.

Martin and I spent hours in the memory care unit. During that time, we had the privilege of getting to know all the other residents who lived there. We found that our one-on-one engagement with the residents brought them, and us, a great deal of joy.

Since my mother’s passing in 2022, we have continued to visit the memory care unit regularly to interact with the residents, both old and new. We have forged many close relationships with the residents and their families over time.

This experience showed us the importance of friendly, supportive, one-on-one interactions with individuals diagnosed with dementia. This, in combination with the insight we obtained on the therapeutic benefits of nature, became the inspiration for Trips Down Memory Lane.

The Meadows at Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

What We Do

Trips Down Memory Lane focuses on individuals, rather than groups, so that we can give our clients undivided, personalized attention.

Prior to a trip, we visit the memory care facility of the client and engage with them, learning about the things that they once loved to do. We believe this interaction helps stimulate the cognitive function of the resident as they tap into positive memories.

We create experiences and excursions based on the interests of the person. For example, if they loved going to parks or gardens, we will find nearby places to enjoy these activities.

If our client loves music, we can take them to a musical performance. An art lover can be taken to a museum. A sports lover may enjoy a local baseball game.

In the fall, we can take a short ride to enjoy the changing colors of leaves, or in the winter, a beautiful snowscape.

Food is a bridge between the past and the present. If a client has a happy memory related to a specific food, we can take them to an establishment that serves this item. Memorable foods could include anything from ice cream to lox and bagels, dim sum or even a Philly cheesesteak. Some of our most profound memories are revisited by the taste of food.

The excursions will usually be kept close to the facility and last, in general, an hour or two.

We will always remain in close proximity to the client during the excursion, as our main priority is their safety and comfort.

Some may wonder if a trip will even be remembered by a person with dementia. Whether they do or don’t, we hope that it will trigger joy and remembrance, even if just for that moment.

Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

The Founders

Lavinia Wu

DMD, CFMP

Lavinia has been a practicing dentist for over 22 years.

After her parents passed, in 2022, she embarked on a journey to learn more about the complexities of the brain. Her undergraduate major at University of Pennsylvania in 1997 was Biological Basis of Behavior with a concentration in Neurology. She recently continued her studies, taking Neurology courses online through Duke University.

In 2023, she received her Functional Medicine Certification through the Functional Medicine University and Functional Genomics Practitioner Certification through The DNA Company.

In 2024, she received her Apollo Health Certification. This program was created by Dr. Dale Bredesen, who is an internationally recognized neurologist. Using a Functional Medicine approach, he has been able to show through his clinical trials, evidence of reversal of Mild to Moderate Dementia.

The Functional Medicine approach provides strategies for managing and preventing the progression of Alzheimer's disease by addressing the root causes. It focuses on the foundational pillars of health through Lifestyle medicine, concentrating on factors that include diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and brain stimulation.

Martin Rosenberger

PharmD, CNA

Martin is a retired clinical hospital pharmacist of almost 20 years.

In early 2024 he completed a certified nursing assistant (CNA) program to prepare for the needs of our nonprofit. He developed skills and techniques to properly and safely transfer and ambulate elderly clients.

Winterthur Gardens, Delaware

Movement and Sunshine

A Deeper Dive into the Science

The Japanese have a term Shinrin-yoku, which is the art of forest bathing. It is a practice of immersing oneself in nature using all of one’s senses to reconnect with the outdoors.

I realized the healing powers of nature as I was learning to cope with the loss of both of my parents. Every day, I would hike through the beautiful parks that we have in Delaware and Pennsylvania. It was instrumental in my healing process, both physically and mentally.

As I dove deep into my Functional Medicine and Neurology studies, I learned the integral interplay between spending time outside and getting movement and sunshine and how critical it is in improving our overall health. Being outside in nature and moving the body confers great benefits to the mind, body, and spirit.

I have included a drop-down menu, highlighting some of the more interesting facts that I have gathered about the brain.

The information that follows is detailed for those who are interested.

Alzheimer’s disease causes brain cells (neurons) and the connections between the neurons (synapses), to degenerate over time and eventually die. This loss of neurons has a detrimental effect on communication, repair, and metabolism within the brain.
Currently, there are few effective pharmacologic interventions to help manage the disease. Often the drugs that do exist have detrimental side effects.
There are two key areas of the brain that are affected by Alzheimer’s:
1. First is the prefrontal cortex, located right behind the forehead, which is critical for decision-making, focus, attention and personality.
1. Second are the temporal lobes, located on each side of the brain. Each temporal lobe contains a structure called the hippocampus. These structures are critical to help form and retain new long-term memories.
You can mitigate many of the deleterious effects of Alzheimer’s through lifestyle interventions, like exercise. Simply moving the body on a regular bases can have immediate, long-lasting, protective benefits for the brain.
Exercise is essential for brain health for several reasons:
1. Exercise immediately increases the levels of chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitters) that help neurons communicate with each other. Neurotransmitters include dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Increases in these chemicals elevate the mood right after the activity. These "good mood" neurotransmitters continue long after exercise.
2. A single session of exercise can enhance the ability of people with dementia to shift and focus attention. The effects can last up to two hours. With exercise, there is an increase in the number of connections between the neurons (synapses).
3. Exercise can improve the reaction time of people with dementia. This can help the person to react more quickly when they are about to fall and possibly prevent the fall from happening.
4. Exercise produces new brain cells in the hippocampus, making it larger in volume, and thereby improving long-term memory.
5. Just like a muscle, the brain can grow with repeated exercise of the body. Exercise can increase the size and function of the hippocampi and prefrontal cortex, both of which are structures affected by Alzheimer's disease.
In conclusion, exercise has the ability to make everyone's brain more resilient. It may not prevent or cure dementia, but it can produce a bigger, stronger brain that will be more resistant to the development of dementia.
Walking has a neuroprotective benefit, which is important for people with Dementia/Alzheimer’s.
Walking helps to increase neurotrophic factors such as BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor), which is the ‘miracle grow’ for neurons - a fertilizer for the brain. We have billions of brain cells, and BDNF helps keep them flourishing and strong. This is because when BDNF is released, it triggers a series of genes to grow new brain cells and pathways. BDNF plays an important role in learning, memory, and behavior.
Walking has been shown to increase the neuronal activity of the Hippocampus, the center for memory and learning. This is one of the areas of the brain most affected by Alzheimer’s. Walking changes the electrical rhythms of the brain, which facilitate the production of BDNF, helping to maintain the health of the synapses. This brain area responds to regular physical activity. Electrical pulses occur in the Hippocampus with movement, but go completely silent with no movement, such as in cases of sedentary behavior.
Walking has shown to be salutary for cardiovascular health. Blood flow to the brain provides oxygen and nutrients, which is important for cognitive health. Also, you can see lowered blood pressure with walking.
The lymphatic system is a vital part of the immune system, and its circulation helps defend the body against disease. Walking confers positive impacts on the person’s immune system. People are stronger, able to fight off infections. There is a powerful anti-inflammatory benefit to walking/exercise, with a decrease in inflammatory markers, IL-1, IL-6, C-reactive protein. Sitting for long periods of time increases these proinflammatory markers.
It is important for the elderly to maintain a healthy musculoskeletal system. There is an increase in frailty in this population and falls are common. Walking helps to strengthen the joints, muscles, and bones, thereby decreasing the chances of falling and preventing serious injuries when falls occur.
There are many other benefits of walking, including the following: improving mood, regulating blood sugar, enhancing sleep health, boosting energy, promoting weight loss, lowering cholesterol, reducing stress, and increasing metabolism.
Depression is common in individuals housed in long-term care facilities.
Studies show that spending as little as 1 hour in nature per week can enhance a person’s mood and have lasting effects for many weeks afterward. Other studies show that spending as little as 1 hour exercising per week can decrease a person’s chance for future major depression by 12%.
Exercise in people who are suffering from major depression has shown to be as effective as drug therapy or cognitive therapy. There is less reliance on antidepressant medications, thereby reducing a multitude of potential side effects.
People residing in locked memory care units may experience extended periods of stress, anxiety, and fear. It can cause these individuals to have chronically increased cortisol levels.
Although increased cortisol levels during brief periods of stress is a normal response and helps to prepare the body for 'fight or flight', chronically increased cortisol levels can have a deleterious effect on the entire body, including the brain.
The chronic release of cortisol, as may be experienced by a person living long-term in an institution, can increase the size of the emotional center of the brain, the Amygdala. An enlarged, overreactive amygdala can compound the stressful state.
The Hippocampus, which is the brain's center for memory and learning, can shrink with increased stress. This can affect a person's ability to remember and learn new things.
Chronic stress can also decrease the function of the Frontal Lobes, leading to changes in attention, personality, impulse control, decision making, speech, vision, mood, and social behavior.
Studies have shown that being out in nature lowers cortisol levels. This promotes a lower sympathetic state (fight or flight) and increases the parasympathetic state (healing and rest).
When the body is relaxed and safe, then it can actually heal itself. When the body is in a constant state of alarm, it has difficulty healing.
As we take a peaceful walk through nature, the stress chemicals in our body decrease, allowing for the healing of the brain.
Exposure to sunlight is very beneficial to older adults. The sun is a natural source of vitamin D. The elderly are at higher risk for vitamin D deficiency, which can lead to weakened bones and frailty. Vitamin D is utilized by over 2000 genes in our body. It's impact on the body cannot be emphasized enough. It is a vital hormone utilized by every organ system. For example, the immune system utilizes Vitamin D to help control inflammation.
In conclusion, being outside in nature and getting movement of the body, confers great benefits to the mind, body, and spirit, and helps to build resiliency. This resiliency is essential, so that we can fight off infections, heal more quickly from illnesses, and decrease our susceptibility to diseases.