Wellness

This Independence Day, Trinidad and Tobago turns 64. If the country were one of my patients, this would be about the age when I would become more interested in health. I would ask about diabetes in the family, home blood pressure checks, cholesterol, sleep, smoking, alcohol, waist circumference and whether …

“[…] I urge our PM not to use the word ‘coolie’ to self-reference. I accept the fact that you may not be endorsing the slur but instead flipping the insult on its head to honour the resilience of people who survived indentureship and built lives despite oppression. “However, I believe …

In two years, I will be a pensioner myself. So when I say the upcoming budget must increase the old age pension, I’m not speaking from theory—I’m speaking from fear and genuine trepidation. Every week, I watch elderly men and women in the supermarket putting items back on the shelf. …

“[…] ‘No rule was broken’ is a legal answer to a question that isn’t, at its heart, legal. It’s a question about what the Savannah is, who it belongs to, and on what terms it was ever meant to be touched…” The following Letter to the Editor on the Government’s …

The third scalding shower before breakfast was not for cleanliness. It was the only place the young man stopped vomiting. There was a cycle of blood tests, drips, injections for nausea, endoscopy and abdominal scans that yielded little useful information. The hot-water behaviour is such a peculiar clinical clue that …

Is this new UNC Government celebrating our Independence, or declaring its independence from public accountability and the rights of its own citizens? In 1999, under the administration of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, part of the Queen’s Park Savannah was paved—reportedly to facilitate the Independence Day Parade. Now, because the North Stand …

The half-used insulin vial was wrapped in a stained cloth and tucked inside a small purse. She had carried it through the sweltering heat, on a maxi and then on foot, to reach the clinic. “Doctor, I know the sugar high,” she said. “But tell me something. Where you want …

Men will discuss chest pain, blood in the urine and constipation with surprising courage. Erectile dysfunction often arrives in a whisper. Sometimes the patient waits until the consultation is almost over: “One more thing, Doc…” Erectile dysfunction means repeatedly being unable to obtain or sustain an erection firm enough for …

Racial tensions are running high in Trinidad and Tobago at the moment. It is sad—heart-breaking really. Our “leaders” have descended into the language of c-words, n-words and percentages. But what about the T-word? Tolerance: that powerful watch word handed to us by our nation’s founders. Or togetherness: “together we aspire, …

For thousands of years, humanity has suspected the moon of interfering in almost every department of medicine. Sleeplessness, fever, bleeding, melancholy, romance, tides, werewolves and madness in the emergency department? Someone has almost certainly blamed the moon. This monthly rhythm seemed too powerful to be irrelevant. If the moon could …

Coffee and chocolate have spent years in and out of medicine’s good books. One month, coffee is blamed for palpitations, high blood pressure and sleepless nights. The next, it is being praised for lowering the risk of diabetes, liver disease and early death. Chocolate is treated no better. A study …

When I reach into the freezer for something from my hoard of cooked dishes, I am often reminded of the origins. The oildown from when breadfruit kept calling me, and I was roasting, mashing, and cubing obsessively. A version of a shepherd’s pie with small chunks of stewed goat nestling …