Islamabad: Pakistan’s growing dependence on pharmaceutical drugs can only be broken by embracing lifestyle medicine—a science that promotes prevention, health promotion, and behavior change instead of prescriptions.
This was the central message as former health minister Dr. Zafar Mirza was elected President of the Pakistan Association of Lifestyle Medicine (PALM) on Saturday, vowing to mainstream lifestyle-based care in the country’s health system.
Dr. Mirza, who has also served as a senior director at the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the solution to Pakistan’s epidemic of diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and heart disease lies not in “adding more medicines to people’s daily lives” but in healthier diets, physical activity, stress management, and preventive care.
“We cannot medicate our way out of a public health crisis,” he stressed, urging both health professionals and the public to recognize lifestyle interventions as the real cure.
The association’s elections, described by members as among the fairest in recent years, brought in a new executive body. Alongside Dr. Mirza as President, Dr. Tahira Sadiq was elected Vice President, Dr. Sadia Fazal as General Secretary, and Dr. Ayesha Armaghan as Joint Secretary. The results showed overwhelming support for candidates committed to advancing lifestyle medicine and reducing Pakistan’s reliance on therapeutic drugs.
Significantly, PALM is the only national organization that organizes the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine (IBLM) examination of the American Board in Pakistan and is also a member of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance USA. This global link makes Pakistan part of a worldwide movement promoting prevention-based health and positions PALM at the center of bringing international standards of lifestyle medicine to the country.
In his first remarks as President, Dr. Mirza laid out a five-year roadmap that aims to embed lifestyle medicine into Pakistan’s health system. By 2026, PALM intends to submit an undergraduate curriculum for approval to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), followed by the launch of postgraduate diplomas and master’s programs in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission and the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP).
Training programs for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals are also planned to extend lifestyle-based care from rural communities to tertiary hospitals.
Another priority will be to institutionalize lifestyle medicine as a recognized specialty, complete with accredited clinics and standards of practice for both public and private health facilities.
Dr. Mirza also pledged to expand PALM’s membership nationwide, hold five international lifestyle medicine conferences by 2030, and promote global certification through the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine (IBLM) exams in Pakistan.
For Dr. Mirza, the vision is clear: to reduce Pakistan’s heavy dependence on an overstretched pharmaceutical industry and redirect the health system toward prevention. With essential medicines repeatedly going out of stock and costs spiraling, he argued that Pakistan’s survival depends on changing how illness is managed.
“Lifestyle medicine is about restoring health, not prolonging sickness. If we want healthier families, a stronger workforce, and lower health costs, we must shift from treatment to prevention,” he said.
Observers believe his election is more than just an internal association affair. It signals a growing recognition among Pakistani doctors that the country needs to rethink how it tackles the rising tide of non-communicable diseases. For millions of patients, the promise of lifestyle medicine offers a chance at breaking free from a lifetime of pills and prescriptions—and building a healthier society that invests in prevention rather than cure.
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