Author: Sameed Chaudhary

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of those conditions that gets talked about casually in Pakistan — “woh toh bohot OCD hai” — but rarely taken seriously as a medical diagnosis. Most people who live with it spend years assuming they are just overly careful, overly religious, or overly anxious, without realising there is a name for what they experience and, more importantly, a treatment that works. According to the World Health Organization (2022), OCD affects roughly 1 to 3 percent of the global population at some point in their lives. In Pakistan, the picture is complicated by two things: a strong…

White spots on nails are one of those things almost every Pakistani has noticed at some point and immediately blamed on calcium or zinc. It is one of the most common nail complaints that dermatologists hear in clinics across Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad. The good news is that most of the time, the spots are harmless and temporary. The calcium-deficiency explanation has been passed down through generations in Pakistani households, often reinforced by well-meaning family members. But dermatologists consistently say this is a myth in the vast majority of cases. The real causes are usually far more ordinary, and understanding…

Many Pakistanis hear the word “urologist” from a GP’s referral slip and aren’t sure what it means or why they’ve been sent to one. The confusion is understandable: urology covers a wider range of conditions than most people expect, and the Urdu term for this specialty is rarely explained in plain language. Pakistan sits in what researchers call the “Stone Belt” — a geographic band across South and West Asia where kidney stones are unusually common. According to a cross-sectional study published in PubMed (2024) from Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, kidney stone prevalence in Pakistan is reported at approximately 2.8%,…

Most Pakistanis have felt that tight, restless feeling before an exam result, a job interview, or a family crisis. That feeling has a name in English — anxious — and several names in Urdu, each capturing a slightly different shade of the same emotion. Knowing which word fits your experience is the first step to understanding whether what you feel is normal or something that deserves attention. Mental health conversations in Pakistan are growing, but a lot of confusion still exists around the word “anxiety.” People use it loosely to describe everything from pre-wedding nerves to months of sleepless, spiralling…

Feeling a tight chest before an important meeting, lying awake at 2 AM replaying a conversation, or sensing a vague dread that you can’t quite name — these are feelings most Pakistanis know well. We often call it “preshani” or “be-chaini” and push through, assuming it will pass on its own. Sometimes it does. But when that restlessness stays for weeks, starts affecting your sleep, your appetite, or your relationships, it may be more than ordinary stress. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions in Pakistan, yet they’re frequently mistaken for a weak character or a spiritual…

A man in Lahore goes weeks without sleeping properly. He snaps at his family, stops meeting friends, and tells himself he’s just stressed from work. His wife notices something is wrong. He insists he’s fine. This pattern plays out quietly in homes across Pakistan every day. Depression in men rarely looks the way most people expect it to. It doesn’t always show up as crying or saying “I feel sad.” More often, it hides behind irritability, physical complaints, and the pressure to keep going no matter what. Understanding what depression actually looks like in men, and why Pakistani men are…

Standing up from the prayer mat after Fajr, getting off a charpai in the afternoon heat, or rising quickly from a long sitting session at work — many Pakistanis know that brief spinning or “head rush” feeling all too well. It passes in a few seconds and most people brush it off. But when it happens regularly, or when the room seems to tilt for longer than a moment, it’s worth understanding what’s actually going on. In Pakistan’s summer months, when temperatures in Lahore and Karachi regularly cross 40°C and fluid intake often drops during Ramadan fasting hours, this kind…

Roti and rice sit at the centre of almost every Pakistani meal. Whether it’s a plate of daal chawal after a long day or a few rotis with sabzi at dinner, these two carbs are non-negotiable for most families. So when someone decides to lose weight, the first question is almost always: which one do I keep? The honest answer is that neither is the enemy. But they are not equal either, and the difference matters more in a Pakistani diet than most generic articles admit. The way we actually eat roti and rice here — the portion sizes, the…

Screen time in Pakistan has climbed sharply over the past few years. Students attend online classes, office workers spend six to eight hours on laptops, and most people scroll through their phones well into the night. By the end of the day, a familiar discomfort sets in: tired, burning eyes that struggle to focus. A study published in the Khyber Medical University Journal (2023) found that 74.1% of medical students at Khyber Medical College Peshawar reported at least one symptom of digital eye strain, with headache and eye pain being the most common complaints. That figure is striking, but it…

That hot, prickling sensation in the soles of your feet — especially when you lie down at night — is one of the more unsettling symptoms people quietly put up with for months. Many Pakistanis chalk it up to fatigue after a long day of standing, or blame the heat in Karachi or Lahore summers. Sometimes that’s all it is. But when the burning keeps coming back, or starts waking you up at night, it usually means something else is going on. Pakistan carries one of the highest burdens of type 2 diabetes in the world, with over 33 million…