Author: Sameed Chaudhary

Karachi in June is a different world from the rest of the year. Temperatures cross 38°C, humidity sits above 70%, and most people spend their days in sweat-soaked clothes. That combination is exactly what skin fungi are waiting for. From the groin to the feet to the back, fungal infections spike every summer across Pakistan, yet many people spend weeks treating them with the wrong cream. A study reviewing 863 patients at Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi found tinea cruris (jock itch) was the single most common superficial fungal infection, making up over 27% of all cases. A separate Lahore…

Quick Answer Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections. They have no effect on viruses and cannot shorten a cold, flu, or most sore throats. Taking antibiotics when you have a viral illness does not help you recover faster — it only increases your risk of antibiotic resistance. A doctor’s assessment, and sometimes a blood test or throat swab, is the only reliable way to tell the two apart. Every winter in Lahore, and every monsoon season in Karachi, clinics fill up with patients carrying the same request: “Doctor, please give me an antibiotic.” The fever has been there two days,…

Quick Answer Most back pain settles on its own within a few days to two weeks with rest and simple care. You should see a doctor if the pain has not improved after two weeks, is getting worse rather than better, or comes with any warning sign such as leg weakness, numbness, bladder or bowel changes, fever, or pain that started after a fall or accident. Some combinations of symptoms need emergency care the same day. Kamar dard is one of the most common reasons Pakistanis visit a general physician, and most of the time the cause is something straightforward:…

Collagen supplements have become one of the fastest-selling wellness products in Pakistan over the last few years. Walk into any pharmacy in Lahore or Karachi and you’ll find an entire shelf dedicated to collagen powders, capsules, and sachets, many of them marketed heavily to women in their 30s and 40s. The marketing claims are bold: glowing skin in weeks, thicker hair, pain-free knees. Some of those claims have real science behind them. Others are exaggerated. Knowing the difference matters, especially when you’re spending Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 6,000 or more on a monthly supply. This guide covers what collagen actually…

Joints that ache after a long day, persistent bloating after meals, or fatigue that does not lift with rest — these complaints are common in Pakistani households, and chronic inflammation is often a quiet contributor. Most people reach for a painkiller and move on, not realising that what they eat every single day is either calming or feeding that internal fire. A 2024 study published in a peer-reviewed journal compared the dietary inflammatory index of a typical traditional Pakistani diet (TPD) against a Mediterranean-style diet and found that the TPD scored significantly higher on pro-inflammatory markers. Researchers noted that the…

Onion, known as piyaz (پیاز) in Urdu, sits at the base of nearly every Pakistani meal. From the first spoonful of tarka dal to the bhuna masala of a weekend karahi, it goes in without a second thought. Most people cook it purely for flavor and never stop to consider what it actually does for their health. Pakistan grows over 1.8 million tonnes of onions each year, making it one of the country’s most important vegetable crops, according to agricultural data from the Government of Pakistan. Sindh and Balochistan account for the majority of production, with districts like Hyderabad, Sanghar,…

Broccoli is one of those vegetables that has quietly moved from Islamabad’s upscale grocery stores to everyday sabzi stalls across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A decade ago it was a novelty; now you can pick up a fresh head at most large markets in Lahore and Karachi for roughly Rs 150 to Rs 300, depending on the season. Most Pakistani households are still more familiar with gobhi (cauliflower), which is broccoli’s closest relative. The two look similar, but broccoli packs noticeably more vitamin C, folate, and the antioxidant compound sulforaphane. That difference matters for everyday health, especially given how common…

Barley is one of those grains that most Pakistani households already know by another name. Ask any older relative and they’ll tell you it’s جو (Jau), a grain that has been eaten across the subcontinent for centuries. It shows up in everything from desi dalia to herbal drinks prescribed by hakims. Yet somewhere along the way, wheat and rice took over the Pakistani table, and jau quietly disappeared from daily meals. That’s worth reconsidering. Research on Pakistani barley varieties conducted at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) in Faisalabad confirms that locally grown jau carries an impressive nutritional profile, including…

Quinoa has quietly found its way onto Pakistani kitchen shelves over the last few years. You’ll spot it at pansar stores in Lahore’s Liberty Market, health-food sections in Karachi’s upscale grocery chains, and now on Daraz. Most people, though, still aren’t sure what it’s called in Urdu or whether it fits into a desi diet built around chawal, daal, and roti. That uncertainty is worth clearing up, because quinoa’s nutritional profile genuinely stands apart from the grains Pakistanis eat daily. According to the USDA FoodData Central database, 100g of dry quinoa provides roughly 14g of protein and 7g of dietary…

Rice water for hair is one of those remedies that has been sitting in Pakistani kitchens all along. Every time someone washes basmati or sela rice before cooking, they pour that milky, starch-rich water straight down the drain without realising it can double as a hair treatment. The practice is centuries old in parts of East and Southeast Asia. Women in the Yao village of Huangluo, China, are noted by researchers for hair that averages around six feet in length, and they attribute this partly to fermented rice water rinses. Pakistani women have their own long tradition of natural hair…