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February/March 2011
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“I eat a horse,” he said. “Every single day I eat a horse.” Then how do you do it? “I’m a jitterbug,” he says, shrugging it off. It’s so true. Anyone who’s met Surujpal Teelucksingh will tell you that the man is pure motion. Ideas are no sooner generated than he is acting upon them. A consultation for him is no more difficult than pausing during a consultation, dialing on his phone, asking questions in his clear, precise, polite manner – that is always friendly enough to be warm, but not too chatty to invite coziness – and getting on with it methodically. He is extraordinary in the way he seems to have time for everyone and everything and still retains his benign composure – which would be okay if he were just an average joe doing an average good day’s work in an average joint. That Joe’s a cool guy, we’d say as we went along our way, never giving him another thought. But this ain’t no Joe. This is a Paul whose CV runs to 17 pages without boast, and whose range of activities: teaching (and examining), research, administration, doctoring, and working with various research and advisory bodies, makes one giddy just trying to figure out how he manages. Prof Teelucksingh is a Professor of Medicine attached to the Faculty of Medical Sciences of The UWI, and the Public Orator for the St. Augustine Campus. He has done significant work in diabetes, dengue, endocrinology, and pedagogy, and has been involved in over 80 publications. He is the coordinator and a trustee of the Helen Bhagwansingh Diabetes Trust Fund which supports the Diabetes Education Research and Prevention institute (DERPi), and he is The UWI team leader of the IDB-funded Regional Non-Communicable Diseases Surveillance System Project, he is involved in MEDS Project, the Medical Education of General Practitioners and General Public in the Metabolic Syndrome. He has been scientific advisor to the Diabetes Association of Trinidad and Tobago and the Juvenile Diabetes Association of Trinidad and Tobago, and has chaired the National Commission for UNESCO. Now, the 53-year-old has been named as one of three 2011 laureates for the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence. His award for Science and Technology was announced earlier this month. The other two awardees are Dr Lennox Honychurch of Dominica (Public & Civic Contributions), a Staff Tutor at UWI’s School of Continuing Studies, and Dr Kim Johnson (Arts & Letters). The award is accompanied by TT$500,000, a sum meant to help recipients further their projects. So what does Prof Teelucksingh plan to do with his award? “A metabolic lab designed to screen for metabolic diseases in the newborn, e.g. thyroid disease,” he said, adding that early detection makes the world of difference. “If we catch them within the first week of life there is a good outcome and if we fail, as we often do, due to lack of a screening protocol, then society becomes burdened by having special kids who require costly special attention. This is but one example of what a super functioning metabolic lab can do.” He said this dream will take time as they will need to build capacity, “with the help of colleagues like Dr Brian Cockburn who has great expertise in the genetics of diabetes, which is a bright prospect on the horizon.” “Of course this lab will complement our diabetes work in children in better identifying and treating such kids discovered to be diabetic. There is much more to de done here but that will be the start,” he says, taking his trademark brisk approach. “I am intrigued by the close association between diabetes and heart disease. My pet research area these days is trying to unravel this link. There are many things occurring in the diabetic all at once: hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, hyperuricaemia and many others. We are told that when many things occur together, we should try identifying one common link… and I am playing God trying to find that one point of origin!” Maybe playing God is what fuels this jitterbug; whatever it is should be bottled because God knows we need more like him. |
We were talking about obesity, diet, exercise and diabetes, and I figured I could get a few tips on getting trim like him.