The latest episode in our Telling Our Stories: In Conversation series took place on Tuesday, 28 June.
Returning guest Professor Graeme Earl from Archaeology was joined on the sofa by Dr Roxana Carare from Medicine to discover some of the fascinating connections between their disciplines.
Whilst discussing instances of early onset familial dementia, Roxana mentions the usefulness of Archaeology in regards to identifying patterns which could shed light on how the evolution of people in particular areas of the world might have contributed to very high, or relatively low numbers of individuals suffering from particular forms of dementia.
Graeme describes how archaeological evidence of people’s diets could be correlated with skull evidence to explore the potential relationship between diet, environment and dementia. Roxana reinforces the value which this sort of research could provide, not only in highlighting past patterns, but in enabling people to reduce the prevalence of certain diseases in the future.
As well as potentially looking far back into our ancestral past, Roxana speaks of the evidence her own research (using mice) has provided, in regards to the link which can be drawn in just one generation between a mother’s diet and the formation of the blood vessels in her child’s brain.
Reinforcing the importance of inter-disciplinary research and collaboration, during the talk Roxana commented that within a single discipline, such large questions as ‘how did certain diseases first appear and become prevalent’ cannot be answered, a sentiment which Graeme echoed.
Look out for the full episode, which will be available on SUSSED later this week.
Interested in attending future talks in the Telling Our Stories: In Conversation series? Please send an email to register for updates.
https://youtu.be/nIJ1WXWTpqI%20
https://youtu.be/4uhuIcz1koQ%20