Health

Yes, I personally hate the term “first world” but it drives the point home emphatically in this instance. Trinidad and Tobago has always had a pattern of importing first world style without having the first world substance to back it up. We pave over mangroves and build skyscrapers without proper …

A recent comment from a visiting sailor has stayed with me in a way that is both embarrassing and deeply concerning. He shared that as he approached Trinidad by sea, he did not need a map to know where he was. The number of plastic bottles floating in our waters …

We trust Google more than doctors. And it is costing us. We are living in the most medically advanced time in human history. Unfortunately, trust in medicine has never felt more fragile. It has worsened since Covid. We can map the human genome. We can replace failing organs. We can …

“[…] In his 1971 book The Mechanics of Independence, ANR Robinson wrote that: ‘As financial rewards are lower in the less developed country, the decisive factor of keeping its skilled people from emigrating are likely to be career opportunity and job satisfaction.’ “Simply put, if we do not value our …

There are many ways to kill a man. Some are sudden. Some are brutal. Some are mercifully brief. Crucifixion was a slow, deliberate medical death. The Romans may not have had physiology textbooks, blood gas analysis or intensive care units, but they understood something grimly practical about the human body: …

For some time, the thought of approaching a memoir as a collection of essays has been floating about. Assembling memories in the hope that they might make for useful reading means committing to candour and truth. People’s feelings have to be taken into account. What to include, what to leave …

At six o’clock one morning not too long ago, a woman sat quietly outside a public clinic with a numbered card in her hand. She had arrived before sunrise. Not because she wanted to—because she had to. Her eyes were failing for months. The headaches were becoming more frequent. Work …

Hard to imagine that Sade is 67. For decades, she wooed the world with her mellifluous voice and songs about passion. I suspect many people believed themselves to be madly in love at her behest. How easy it is to float away on the cloud of Kiss of Life! Listening …

Something strange has been happening in Trinidad and Tobago. Ask almost anyone how they are sleeping and the answer is rarely enthusiastic. “I not sleeping good these days.” It is said casually, often with a small shrug, as if poor sleep were simply another inconvenience of modern life. Covid exacerbated …

Many women arrive in clinic apologising for their bodies. “Doctor, I know… it’s my weight.” They say it before I check their blood pressure. Before I review their blood tests. Before I ask about sleep, stress, grief, work, hormones or the fact that they have not eaten a quiet meal …

There is a fashionable word for what many people feel right now. Burnout. It sounds modern. Sophisticated. Almost noble. The inevitable tax of ambition. But I am not convinced burnout is the correct diagnosis. I suspect something far less poetic. You are not burned out. You are biochemically overloaded. And …

At first glance, the “wellness industry” looks marvellous. It speaks about prevention. It mentions gut health, cortisol, mitochondria and hormones. But if you watch closely, you’ll notice something peculiar. It never wants you finished. It wants you improved. Optimised. Detoxed. Biohacked. Reset. Rebalanced. Rejuvenated. But never done. A cured patient …