Author: Sameed Chaudhary

Every May to September, Pakistani hospitals fill up with heat-related patients. Karachi’s Civil Hospital alone reports 70 to 80 such cases daily during peak heatwaves, according to a 2025 Express Tribune report. Many of these patients arrived too late because a family member couldn’t tell the difference between heat exhaustion and heatstroke. The two conditions sit on the same spectrum of heat-related illness, but one is manageable at home and the other is a life-threatening emergency. Getting that distinction wrong can cost a life. Pakistan’s outdoor workers, rickshaw drivers, construction labourers, and students walking to school in June heat are…

Most people who have prediabetes feel completely fine. That’s the part that makes it genuinely dangerous. Blood sugar has already started climbing above normal, but the body hasn’t triggered any alarm loud enough to notice, so years pass before a test reveals the problem. Pakistan carries one of the heaviest prediabetes burdens in the world. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis published in ScienceDirect estimated a prediabetes prevalence of roughly 11% among Pakistani adults, translating to approximately 26 million people. Men showed a significantly higher rate of prediabetes than women in that same analysis. These aren’t abstract numbers; they represent…

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…