Bahamas News
Men’s Health Advice ahead of Father’s Day – 7 Secrets to Feeling Great as You Age
#TurksandCaicos, June 19, 2021 – Many people once made the assumption that Bahamian men had little to no interest in health issues, but fortunately, this misconception is changing based on the overwhelmingly positive responses to annual conferences hosted by the Ministry of Health on “Male Health.” Bahamian men today want to feel good as they get older, but to do so, they need to be knowledgeable about the risks that naturally rise with age and be willing to embrace preventive, healthy habits.
What affects the way we age?
“Your gender, genetics and psychological differences are all at play when it comes to aging,” says family medicine practitioner Donald Ford, MD, MBA at Cleveland Clinic. “Most importantly, other factors more within a man’s control can affect how well he ages.”
Dr. Ford says men age better if they:
- Are non-smokers.
- Avoid excessive alcohol consumption.
- Keep a healthy diet and weight.
- Have a strong support system.
Advancing age affects multiple systems in the body. Here are seven common areas that are affected, plus tips to fight back.
1. Fight heart disease and high blood pressure
As we get older, the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure rises. In fact, there’s a 75 percent risk of heart disease in men at age 60. (A similar risk for women isn’t seen until age 80.)
Tips: Keep high blood pressure and cholesterol under control, exercise, eat right and if you smoke, do everything you can to quit.
2. Keep your mind sharp
Our brains also change with age, and this includes losing neurons. Memory, cognitive function and reaction time are affected. Depression also becomes more common.
Tips: Keep your brain sharp with mental exercises, social activities, music, spending time with friends and keeping pets, if you like. If depression is an issue, seek psychological counseling.
3. Watch your metabolism and sleep
Changes in metabolism and hormone function often can result in weight gain and sometimes weight loss. Your sleep patterns can change.
Tips: If sleep is a concern, try going to bed at the same time every night and waking up at the same time each morning. Also, if you take naps during the day, consider curbing them so you get a better night of sleep. These changes can help reset a circadian cycle. Exercise also can help you sleep better. You can also discuss weight gain or loss with your doctor.
4. Be smart about testosterone
Despite what you hear on TV, low testosterone that requires treatment is very rare and usually limited to men with chronic diseases, although prolonged use of drugs like opiates or steroids can be the cause. Most symptoms associated with low testosterone (fatigue, loss of libido) are usually due to other physical or psychological factors.
Tip: Work hard at getting plenty of exercise and 8 hours of sleep a night and the symptoms of “Low-T” usually improve.
5. Don’t ignore your skin
With age, skin can lose thickness and elasticity, making it more vulnerable to injury. Also, various skin lesions, such as sun spots, become more common.
Tip: Look for changes in any skin lesions, including shape, texture, size and color. If you notice anything, call your doctor right away.
6. Address prostate problems
The size of your prostate can increase, which can lead to less urine flow and frequent bathroom trips. There’s also a higher chance of urinary infection or prostatitis. Also, while women are more likely to have urinary incontinence, men are not immune.
Tip: Talk to your doctor about any issues with urination or any signs of irritation or pain. Most over-the-counter prostate remedies are ineffective.
7. Cut your osteoporosis risk
Osteoporosis tends to affect men later in life. An increased risk of fracture from bone fragility generally affects men ten years after women, but the severity or mortality associated with a hip fracture, for example, is higher in men.
Tips: Exercising regularly and avoiding smoking and excessive drinking can help you prevent osteoporosis.
Health screenings, treatment and supplements
To age well, it’s also important to do appropriate health screenings. Be sure your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are under control and if needed, that you undergo diabetes screening.
“As we approach age 50, we also need to screen colon cancer and prostate cancer,” Dr. Ford says. “I also look for things like lung cancer and aortic aneurysm in men with a history of smoking,” he adds.
He says it’s also a good idea to revisit your diet as you get older. You may find that the same diet you had at 20 no longer works at 50.
It’s important also to address heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and depression. Managing them may require prescription medication and/or lifestyle changes.
Supplements are generally unnecessary and sometimes harmful. Although taking a daily multivitamin may provide some reassurance, it’s always better to get your nutrients through a healthy diet.
“It’s important to focus on staying active physically. It doesn’t need to be tackle football. It can be dancing, walking or using a tread mill. The principle of “use it or lose it” becomes a reality as we age,” Dr. Ford says. “The more you just sit around, the more you just sit around.”
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
