Author: Norin Chaudhry

The writer is a PhD in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, at Iowa State University in the lab of Gustavo C. MacIntosh.

In Pakistan, health is a luxury, not a right. It is only affordable to a chosen few. If you have a rash or a mole, then you better keep it hidden until it sucks the life right out of you or you can say goodbye to your savings. Why is it that in Pakistan, the real customer for whom all facilities have been established is put AFTER everything else? For example, is the hospital there to serve the administrators/doctors MORE than it actually benefits the patients? Ever since the launch of unions across the world, people were made to believe…

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After spending millions of rupees and countless sleepless nights, Aslam today is graduating with an MBBS degree. His future sure looks bright. After all, a career in medicine or engineering is a luxurious one. The hard work pays off and you cash every minute and every drop of sweat you spent working towards the ultimate goal. Wait a minute. Weren’t these the expectations of the parents from 1990s? Ah I say, life was simpler, indeed! Instead, fast-forward to the parents of today’s generation and you will gasp. All they can see are young doctors and graduates camping on roads in…

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 Yeh technology ka zamana hai Every problem has a solution on Google. Whether you can’t decide what to wear on a birthday party or which happy meal to order for yourself. Everything has the same guru, Google. Even the mothers of this generation love to say “Aes Google di maa kolun he puch ley mein ki pakawaan” (Ask Google guru what should I make in dinner?) Same is the problem with our healthcare. When we feel the pain in our chest, we choose to google it up then go to a doctor for an actual identification of the problem. Become…

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You know what damages us the most as a nation? It is our stubbornness and lack of concern for those around us. We run on the cliché that all that serves myself, is well. May be this is the reason why we fail to look at the agony of other people and do not understand their struggles. We tend to spend more time worried about whether our clothes are crease-free for going to office and fail to see those who are wrapped in a single shroud. We almost always end up neglecting the faction of the community which is lower both…

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Are you or your loved ones fighting diabetes? Do you want to know this disorder in detail? You know to manage any disease or disorder you should under it properly, so that you can take care of yourself according to that. Medical research has always set a new precedent with every passing day. Each day, we uncover new research and realities related to health and our lifestyles. While Pakistanis are a big fan of food in general, we are also prone to developing health-related disorders at a faster pace when compared to other Asian countries. In recent years, the rate…

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It was a dimly lit corridor. Dirtied with empty food boxes and fallen hopes. Pigeons fluttering on the window sills, pecking on every decaying nibble they could find. The paint on the walls was rather the blood of the hospital’s year-end trail of patients. The flakes from the wall were falling off of them with no one to patch them up. Like the wounds on the arms and legs of patients waiting outside the medical wards. It was a grave, odd world. A government hospital. A couple sitting on a sheet of cloth, with their child shivering and crying in the…

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It was normally most evident when you would look at the skyline of New York or that of Beijing, that you observed that fogs are not a thing of the winter alone. It was then named smog because it was smoke trapped in the atmosphere as a constant reminder of what we were losing each day at the cost of industrialization and progressive growth. What is Smog? Since last week, Lahore is draped in a thick sheet of poisons reducing the visibility down to 20 to 25 m and causing severe irritation to the lungs and eyes. Sadly, it has…

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It is engrained into our minds to not perceive the possible dangers of some diseases’ inconspicuous signs and symptoms till something daunting event like a sudden crash or fainting takes place. Especially when it comes to our eyes. Blurry visions might be a recurrent sign of weakening eyesight but we tend to postpone our visits to the ophthalmologist till we are actually black-out. Unless we suddenly fear that it might be gone forever. In the course of such events, we realize (too late) that many of the eye conditions had been manifesting since long and they could have been prevented…

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Some time back, we talked about effective stress management techniques that can hopefully help in modifying the increasing cases of anxiety and depression disorders in Pakistan. However, on the downside, research proves that excess stress can cause the incidence of multiple diseases. It is always a wise choice to know what you are getting into and prepare yourselves accordingly. Heart disease: When you are obsessing over the kink in the perfectly ordered set of pencils (also commonly known as OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), your heart starts pounding on the walls of the chest. Within no time, heart rate rises and…

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