ISLAMABAD: While patient burden has been continuously increasing on public sector and private hospitals across the country, the National Taskforce on Lifestyle Medicine has started efforts to bring physical changes in the life of people so that they rarely fall sick and reduce burden on health facilities.
The taskforce was established last month with director general health Dr Abdul Wali Khan its convener and Vice Chancellor Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University Dr Tanwir Khaliq as co-convener.
Members of the task force include Dr Malik M Safi and Dr Shagufta Feroz, who is the founding president of the Pakistan Association of Lifestyle Medicine, former Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Health Dr Zafar Mirza, Dr Mohammad Zia Abbas, Dr Yawar Hayat, Dr Sadia Fazal, Mazhar Nisar and others are members of the taskforce.
Dr Zafar Mirza, while talking to Dawn, said that during the meeting of the taskforce a comprehensive discussion was held on the implementation of healthy food policies within the health ministry and allied institutions.
“The taskforce also reviewed proposals for the incorporation of lifestyle medicine into undergraduate medical education curricula in collaboration with Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and at the postgraduate levels through College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan and Higher Education Commission.
“The taskforce underscored the need to raise public awareness of lifestyle modification through robust media campaigns. It further emphasised the importance of orienting all healthcare providers to lifestyle medicine through a short, potentially mandatory, self-learning online course, the development of which will be undertaken by the Pakistan Association of Lifestyle Medicine (Palm),” he said.
“We aim to address the escalating burden of lifestyle-related diseases through preventive and evidence-driven cost effective interventions around six pillars, namely, nutrition, physical activity, nocturnal sleep, stress management, avoidance of addictive substances and social connectedness. Environmental health has also assumed special significance in lifestyle medicine,” he said.
Dr Mirza said non-communicable diseases in Pakistan presented a growing burden of disease that no number of advanced medical interventions can tackle.
“This umbrella includes chronic diseases and conditions like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, liver and kidney dysfunction, chronic obstructive respiratory disorders, cancers, mental disorders, etc. Globally, 74 per cent of deaths are caused by these diseases.
“Seventy-three per cent of all deaths due to NCDs occur in low- and middle-income countries. In 2010, the burden of disease posed by NCDs in Pakistan surpassed that of communicable diseases with ever-increasing presentations,” he said.
“Currently, every fourth adult above the age of 20 in Pakistan suffers from Type II diabetes; that’s 33 million adults, making us the third-largest population in the world, right after India and China. Every third Pakistani adult above the age of 45 years suffers from high blood pressure. One in every nine women is likely to face breast cancer. In Pakistan, years lived with disability — a product of prevalence and disability weight — for women aged 10 to 24 years, due to breast cancer, is the highest in the world. Every fourth woman quietly struggles with perinatal depression,” he said.
Dr Mirza said that lifestyle medicine was about holistic self-care and supporting others to change their daily unhealthy behaviours in terms of what they eat (nutrition); how much they exercise (physical activity); how much they sleep (restorative sleep); how they handle stress (stress management); their use of any harmful substances (addictions); and the quality of their social connectedness.
“Though the ideas posited are not new, this is still, in a way, a new branch of medical science. Lifestyle medicine has reorganised old ideas into a new, preventive and therapeutic framework, with strong evidence at the base of each of its six pillars. Many credible studies speak to the effectiveness of these lifestyle behavioural changes when sustained. The collective and synergistic effect of these six behaviours is transformative in the truest sense of the word,” he said.
Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2026
