Týden 1 - 4. 3. 2021
4. března 2021
Leslie Quade
Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University
Stressed to the Tooth: Stress, health and dental cortisol concentrations in modern and past populations
Abstract:
As seen in both past and contemporary societies, stress has a significant impact upon health and wellbeing. However, the relationship between stress, disease, and mortality has generated interpretive challenges for biological anthropologists and palaeopathologists studying health in past populations. Cortisol, known as ‘the stress hormone’, plays a primary role in the body's stress response. Therefore, cortisol concentrations have the potential to act as a direct indicator of stress, which may not be subject to the same interpretive limitations as traditional skeletal stress indicators. Although a significant focus in modern clinical research, only a few studies have analyzed cortisol in archaeological human remains and these have been limited to hair. For the first time, cortisol has been detected and analysed from within archaeological tooth structures. The relationship between dental cortisol concentrations and commonly recorded skeletal stress indicators is also explored. Given the high survival of teeth in archaeological contexts, dental cortisol concentrations have the potential to provide an important new avenue for research on stress in the past.