Introducing myself

[Suzanne]

My name is Suzanne. I'm an archaeologist whose research interests, broadly, lie in the interaction of humans and their landscapes. This definitely includes food. More precisely, I'm interested in the transition from foraging to farming, and my research area is the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Here's there's an archipelago of islands, and the adjoining coast is a patchwork of pockets of resources (soil and water) separated by steeply folded mountains and large expanses of waterless karst. This creates microenvironments that can vary greatly within very small geographic areas. The time period of interest (to me) is 9,000-7,000 years BP, when the Adriatic was refilling after the Last Glacial Maximum.

I have a fair amount of experience as a smallholder in South Africa, where I pastured dairy cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry. I grew vegetables and some fruit. I also got into eating wild foods, and got deeply into nutrition.

I currently live in San Francisco, where neither foraging nor farming is practicable! Between the fog, the high walls and tall trees surrounding the backyard, the skunks, possums, and raccoons, I never get to harvest anything I do manage to grow. One day, I will have a microfarm in a kinder climate.

My personal health challenges, as well as my earlier experience with making sure that my livestock was well-nourished, have gotten me deeply interested in nutrigenomics, a passion that's only intensified by archaeology and other earth sciences. With mounting evidence for very high genomic variability even between closely-related humans, I'm intrigued by the often striking differences in nutritional needs for individuals - there just isn't one blueprint generated at some time in the Palaeolithic from which all subsequent humans were stamped! I'm also interested in microevolutionary events, and the interfaces between epigenetics and genetics.

I live with chronic migraine (since I was six years old) and episodic major depression, along with PTSD. I also have chronic fatigue syndrome, and peripheral neuropathy. Episodically, and unpredictably, the myelin sheathing of apparently random nerves dissolves, causing sensations of static electricity bursts, twitching, and pain; up to now, the sheathing has always regenerated. I do a lot of literature research, and a lot of personal experimentation with foods and supplements.

[Islander]

I'm so glad you've joined our forum, Suzanne! You're a bottomless source of pertinent information (she says selfishly, since our interests coincide). On behalf of the membership, we promise not to offer migraine cures or any other health recommendations, knowing that anyone in your position has already tried every remedy in the book. I will say that we're always on the alert for breakthroughs on any health topic. Best wishes "going forward," as they say!

[grulla]

Welcome to HH Suzanne, your bio is most interesting. Sorry, though, for those migraine health issues. Best..."grulla" ("groo-yah")

[Maurya]

Big welcome to the forum for Suzanne! Along with others, I have enjoyed reading your informative posts on that "other forum", where I always look forward to reading your unique take on the information and your always pertinent amplifying facts which illustrate the "rest of the story". Glad you are here amongst us!

[Julieanne]

Hi Suzanne. Welcome to HH,and thank you for being so open about your personal issues. You won't ever get any 'dislikes' on this forum!