For many peo­ple, be­ing un­healthy feels like a per­son­al fail­ure. It is not that they lack knowl­edge, but they strug­gle with con­sis­ten­cy.

In Trinidad and To­ba­go, we have made herbal sup­ple­ments part of our dai­ly rou­tine. Cap­sules of­ten promise quick re­sults and may lead us to think that they are safer to use. Women use them as reme­dies for men­stru­al pain, fer­til­i­ty, and hor­mone bal­ance, to name a few. The be­lief that they are nat­ur­al is mis­lead­ing and while some herbs have ben­e­fits and I rec­om­mend them in my pri­vate prac­tice, sup­ple­ments can car­ry hid­den risks that are over­looked, es­pe­cial­ly for women. The most pow­er­ful tool for main­tain­ing women’s health is prop­er nu­tri­tion.

The month of April is In­ter­na­tion­al Cae­sare­an Aware­ness Month, which places fo­cus on C-sec­tions and the im­pact they have on the health of women well af­ter a ba­by is de­liv­ered.

World Health Day was ob­served on April 7. The day serves as a glob­al cam­paign to raise aware­ness about health is­sues af­fect­ing peo­ple world­wide. Here at home, there is one doc­tor who has been play­ing her part in en­sur­ing women and peo­ple from all walks of life un­der­stand the com­plex health is­sues im­pact­ing their lives.

Nan­cy Her­rera has vi­sions of Steven Spiel­berg, to have lights in all forms of fash­ion on the Queen’s Hall stage when Meta­mor­pho­sis Dance Com­pa­ny presents Il­lu­mi­na­tion– A Jour­ney of Light and Be­com­ing on April 18 and 19. Think of his sci-fi clas­sic Close En­coun­ters of the Third Kind, in which he used in­tense, colour­ful lights and shafts of blind­ing white light to rep­re­sent the alien pres­ence. While Il­lu­mi­na­tion has noth­ing to do with ex­trater­res­tri­al be­ings, the spec­tac­u­lar use of light a la Spiel­berg would have been fas­ci­nat­ing for Her­rera.

From Toron­to to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Dr An­drew Seep­er­sad is re­turn­ing with more than a doc­tor­ate. He is com­ing back with a sharp­ened frame­work for de­ci­sion-mak­ing, a deep­er ad­vi­so­ry lens, and a clear ar­gu­ment that in­no­va­tion in this coun­try must move be­yond talk and in­to dis­ci­plined ex­e­cu­tion.

Build­ing on the theme, Jour­ney Through Time, stu­dents at the Bish­op Anstey Trin­i­ty Col­lege East sixth form trans­formed the school’s sa­van­nah in­to an his­tor­i­cal and fu­tur­is­tic space, as the six hous­es vied for the top spots in the in­sti­tu­tion’s an­nu­al sports day on March 25.

If you are among the many peo­ple check­ing so­cial me­dia for up­dates on a gin­ger­bread house on Ana Street, this sto­ry is for you.

For Ker­nal Roberts, son of leg­endary ca­lyp­son­ian Lord Kitch­en­er (Ald­wyn Roberts), grow­ing up in the shad­ow of a mu­si­cal ti­tan was as over­whelm­ing as it was in­spir­ing.

When Nathan Dur­gas­ingh re­ceived a pair of Guc­ci slides for his 15th birth­day, they were the on­ly gift he got that year. His friend Rhys Thomp­son sur­prised him with them dur­ing a vis­it to South East Port-of-Spain Sec­ondary, where his moth­er worked in the school cafe­te­ria. He was a fa­mil­iar face, of­ten stop­ping by on his free days to lend a hand. The two quick­ly bond­ed over mu­sic, es­pe­cial­ly drum­ming. Grow­ing up in Laven­tille, Nathan had lit­tle ac­cess to brand-name items, and that act of kind­ness changed his life.

Fash­ion takes flight at the I am Jazz in Red con­cert which was held at Cipri­ani Labour Col­lege, Val­sayn on East­er Sun­day.

Chut­ney mu­sic star Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine is set to head­line this year’s I Am the Mu­sic Boss con­cert, shar­ing top billing with Vaib­hav Gup­ta.