Health

Imagine her beside the hospital bed, handbag slipping off one shoulder, phone vibrating with messages from work. Her father is recovering from a stroke and needs assistance with daily living. His tablets have changed and she is handed a prescription with handwriting that old schoolmasters would have disdainfully dismissed as …

Too many things are unacceptably wrong with this brown water situation. The State tells us it is temporary, and so far, it seems that is the only thing we can believe. Yet, while we know it can’t go on forever, the transience we are encouraged to accept is annoying because …

Birthdays matter in public policy, and the government’s move to raise the legal age for alcohol and tobacco to 21 and cannabis to 25 has brought the issue into sharp focus. Medicine gives us good reasons to intervene early but public health requires us to do rather more than change …

“[…] It’s not necessarily that I don’t like you—it’s just immensely discomforting to be up close and personal. “It feels almost painful making eye contact…” The following Letter to the Editor, which gives a first-hand account of living with autism, was submitted to Wired868 by an autistic teenager: They say …

As always, October looks lovely. There are pink ribbons to look at in the bank while waiting in an awfully long line with two tellers, pink labels in the supermarket and pink balloons at the entrance to a company whose staff have been asked to wear pink on Friday. There …

The prescription for healthy living was flawless, if I do say so myself. Grilled fish, fresh vegetables, fruits bursting with antioxidants, legumes, thirty minutes of exercise each day, eight hours of sleep, less stress, avoid all the fried foods that have become staples in our diet, take medications that may …

Covid-19 was a masterclass in socioeconomic inequities but heatwaves have also ignited pervasive disparities in our society. The elderly, those living alone, children, low-income communities, homeless, outdoor workers, athletes, stray animals and those with chronic illnesses bear the brunt of heat-related risks. Their limited access to air conditioning, inability to …

In 2005, Thomas Schelling won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on cooperation and conflict. Schelling’s work largely highlighted the importance of individual actions to collective outcomes. The idea is simple. As individuals, we all make decisions and these decisions lead to a collective outcome for communities, for …

No matter how thrifty I am, it is a challenge to manage the high cost of living. Working from home gives me a welcome kind of flexibility to shop around. Cooking brings me pleasure, mainly because I don’t have to do it as I live alone. Growing up as part …

World Suicide Prevention Day is observed annually on 10 September. The international theme for 2024 to 2026 is “Changing the Narrative on Suicide”. It seems mundane to ask the question: “How are you?”—but if your gut tells you something is wrong, ask again. Try this instead: “You haven’t seemed like …

In the days before the new academic year begins, the quest for books, uniforms and shoes continues. Health is often ignored—but a child who is exhausted, hungry, anxious, dehydrated or struggling to see the board cannot succeed. Sleep patterns may have changed during the vacation, so it is wise to …

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 …