Dr Joel Teelucks­ingh

Sep­tem­ber is a month of dou­ble re­flec­tion in T&T. On the Sep­tem­ber 24, we cel­e­brat­ed Re­pub­lic Day—our re­minder that sov­er­eign­ty is a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty we shoul­der to­geth­er. On the Sep­tem­ber 29, the world paus­es for World Heart Day with the theme: “Don’t Miss A Beat.”

Two oc­ca­sions. Two re­minders. Both ask­ing us to look close­ly at our­selves—not on­ly as cit­i­zens, but as hu­man be­ings with beat­ing hearts that car­ry us through the laugh­ter, the stress and the storms of life.

And yet, in both med­i­cine and pol­i­tics, we are guilty of ne­glect. We miss beats. We take the rhythm for grant­ed un­til the mu­sic stops.

Heart dis­ease is the lead­ing cause of death in T&T. Not crime, not road ac­ci­dents—heart dis­ease. And the tragedy is that many of these deaths are pre­ventable. Just as democ­ra­cy fal­ters when we dis­en­gage, the heart fal­ters when we ig­nore the small warn­ing signs.

For years, we thought of heart dis­ease as an “old peo­ple’s ill­ness.” The un­cle who worked too long, the aunt with di­a­betes, the grand­fa­ther with hy­per­ten­sion. But the da­ta is chang­ing.

Heart dis­ease is strik­ing younger peo­ple—in their 30s and 40s, some­times even in their 20s.

The cul­prits are fa­mil­iar:

Un­healthy di­ets loaded with fast food, fried chick­en box­es, and sweet drinks.

Stress, which we nor­malise as part of our dai­ly hus­tle through traf­fic and dead­lines.

Lack of sleep, as so­cial me­dia runs late and work starts ear­ly.

Va­p­ing, smok­ing and al­co­hol—habits sold to young peo­ple as glam­orous but which qui­et­ly scar the ar­ter­ies.

Seden­tary lifestyles, where hours hunched over screens re­place the rhythm of move­ment.

It’s easy to shrug these off when you’re young and en­er­getic. But the heart keeps score. The dam­age builds silent­ly. A Re­pub­lic can­not thrive if its cit­i­zens are los­ing decades of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and joy to dis­eases we could have pre­vent­ed.

Any med­ical in­ter­ven­tion, from as­pirin to surgery, car­ries risk. COVID-19 vac­cines are no ex­cep­tion. There have been rare re­ports of deaths linked to vac­cine-re­lat­ed side ef­fects — most no­tably se­vere al­ler­gic re­ac­tions (ana­phy­lax­is), blood clot­ting syn­dromes (with ade­n­ovirus-based vac­cines like As­traZeneca and John­son & John­son) or my­ocardi­tis (with mR­NA vac­cines like Pfiz­er and Mod­er­na). But these events are ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly rare.

The risk of dy­ing from COVID-19 in­fec­tion it­self—es­pe­cial­ly from heart at­tack, stroke or blood clots —is many times high­er than the risk of dy­ing from the vac­cine.

The theme this year—Don’t Miss A Beat—is more than a slo­gan. It is both med­ical and metaphor­i­cal.

Med­ical: An ir­reg­u­lar heart­beat can mean atri­al fib­ril­la­tion, a con­di­tion that in­creas­es stroke risk five­fold. Miss­ing beats can lit­er­al­ly cost lives.

Metaphor­i­cal: Miss­ing beats in our lifestyle—skip­ping ex­er­cise, ne­glect­ing health check-ups or ig­nor­ing symp­toms—sets us up for tragedy.

As we cel­e­brat­ed Re­pub­lic Day on Sep­tem­ber 24, speech­es echoed about free­dom, democ­ra­cy and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. How free are we re­al­ly if our choic­es are killing us?

A Re­pub­lic is on­ly as strong as the health of its peo­ple. A coun­try where cit­i­zens spend more time in hos­pi­tal wait­ing rooms than in class­rooms or work­places is a Re­pub­lic in de­cline. The Con­sti­tu­tion may be in­tact but the body politic is gasp­ing.

Our na­tion­al di­et of­ten dis­hon­ours the body. We line up for fast food more faith­ful­ly than we line up for health screen­ings. We know every so­ca lyric by heart but can­not re­call our own blood pres­sure read­ing.

Five beats we can­not miss

So how do we pro­tect younger hearts? Think of five beats you must nev­er skip:

Check your pulse: Know your num­bers—blood pres­sure, cho­les­terol, blood sug­ar. These are your con­sti­tu­tion of health. With­out them, chaos rules.

Fu­el wise­ly: Our dou­bles, roti, and bake-and-shark are cul­tur­al trea­sures—but bal­ance them with veg­eta­bles, fruits and wa­ter.

Move to the mu­sic: Dance, walk, swim, cy­cle. Mo­tion is med­i­cine. Thir­ty min­utes a day can save decades of life.

Man­age stress: Re­pub­lic life is noisy—traf­fic, pol­i­tics, so­cial me­dia. But your heart needs si­lence too. Prayer, med­i­ta­tion, deep breath­ing. Guard your peace.

Lis­ten to symp­toms: Chest pain, breath­less­ness, pal­pi­ta­tions—don’t dis­miss them. Ear­ly care saves lives.

While in­di­vid­u­als car­ry re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, gov­ern­ments can­not miss a beat ei­ther. It is not enough to de­clare World Heart Day or print glossy posters. Pol­i­cy mat­ters:

• Tax­ing sug­ary drinks, not just talk­ing about it.

• Ban­ning junk food in schools, not mere­ly rec­om­mend­ing it.

• Cre­at­ing safe spaces for ex­er­cise, not leav­ing chil­dren to dodge traf­fic while they play or cy­cle.

• Fund­ing screen­ing pro­grammes in com­mu­ni­ties, not wait­ing for peo­ple to col­lapse.

When Dr Er­ic Williams led us in­to In­de­pen­dence and then in­to Re­pub­lic sta­tus, he re­mind­ed us that “the fu­ture of our na­tion is in the school­bags of our chil­dren.” But if those school­bags car­ry snacks and so­das that will one day lead to clogged ar­ter­ies, then the fu­ture is com­pro­mised.

As Sep­tem­ber clos­es, Re­pub­lic Day and World Heart Day stand side by side like two sen­tinels, re­mind­ing us that free­dom and health are in­sep­a­ra­ble.

So let us pledge: Don’t Miss A Beat. Not in gov­er­nance, not in per­son­al health, not in the col­lec­tive rhythm of a na­tion. Let our Re­pub­lic be one where hearts—young and old—beat strong, steady and free.