Watching ITV’s drama Lewis last night, I was surprised when discussion of dementia research cropped up.
This was part 1 of an episode called Intelligent Design. One of the fictional Oxford academics in the story was a scientist who was introduced as having contributed to dementia research. Inspector Lewis asked her about her work on Alzheimer’s, whereupon she widened the definition to include other dementias and started to explain the amyloid hypothesis. Of course, that didn’t last very long – the viewers were signed up for a police drama and didn’t want a long explanation of the chemistry of the brain and different theories about the causes of dementia. It was, however, a strangely heartening moment, another small sign that discussion of dementia is becoming mainstream. It doesn’t matter if most of us don’t know what the amyloid hypothesis is, the important thing is that we can talk about dementia.
By coincidence, the programme’s star, Kevin Whately, is an ambassador of the Alzheimer’s Society.
No comments:
Post a Comment