Objective: This study was aimed to establish the prevalence of overweight, obesity and related its factors among the citizens of Karachi. Methodology: From Jan 2018 to August 2018. This cross-sectional analysis was conducted to obtain information from 772 persons using a validated questionnaire and traditional height and weight evaluation methods have been used. Overweight and obesity were described by South Asian cut-off points as 23 ≥ BMI (Normal), 25.0 - 29.9 BMI (Overweight) and 30 ≤ BMI (Obese) respectively. For data processing, version 21.0 of SPSS was used. Results: In this sample study men was 44.5% and women was 55.5%.Age group 20-39 was the most numerous group which was 55.70%. Among Overweight and obesity were found to be higher in men than in women. About 23.3% of the people were smokers, 1.42% was alcohol consumer, while 20.3% had vegetarian diet, 55.8% had semi-vegetarian diet, and 23.8% had non-vegetarian diet. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among individuals with co-morbidities is 33.96 %, p=0.000. There were 38.5% of people who performed physical activity for at least 30 minutes every day. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity prevalence was found to be high among Karachi individuals, particularly in men than in women. The predictors of obesity were sedentary lifestyle, including diet and lack of physical exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, and presence of co-morbidities. Preventive steps to avoid overweight and obesity may be recommended for people.

Diabetes mellitus has high global prevalence and occurrence and is considered to bean endocrinological and/or metabolic disorder. Conventional drug treatment is costly and has toxic side effects, although it is successful in treating diabetes mellitus. If effective and less toxic, herbal medicine will thus include alternative therapy. This research has been designed to investigate the role of Grewia asiatica extract in the control of diabetes in male albino rats with Streptozotocin mediated type 2 diabetes. Grewia asiatica fruit extract at a dose of 200mg/kg was given to Streptozotocin mediated type II DM Rats. A known anti-diabetic drug, Glibenclamide has been used as a standard drug. The method of the research was to monitor the effect of Grewia asiatica on the blood glucose level of Rats. In this study, Rats were split into four categories i.e. Control, Streptozotocin treated, Streptozotocin + Glibenclamide treated and Streptozotocin +Grewia asiatica extract-treated group.  Grewia asiatica fruit extract significantly improve the blood glucose levels as compared to the standard drug Glibenclamide in Streptozotocin mediated diabetic group. Conclusion: It was concluded that Grewia asiatica may be used in the treatment of diabetes or decreasing the elevated level of blood sugar.

Background: Pakistan is bearing the second highest global burden of hepatitis C and B virus, infecting 3-4 % of its overall 22 million population. These infections remain unchecked in most of the cases and such incidences become a continuous source of infection to the healthy population. Maximum efforts for screening, prevalence and surveillance of these viral infections is needed to stem the devastating impact on the underprivileged communities living in the outskirt of major cities. Methods: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B & C and the corresponding risk factors among the low socioeconomic communities of Islamabad. Participants (aged 10-70 years) were recruited from six localities inhabited with people living in underprivileged conditions. Relationship between hepatitis B/C incidence, demographics and risk factors was measured using Pearson's Chi-square test, univariate and multivariate regression analysis. A total of 1004 individuals were enrolled in this study.Results: Out of 1004 individuals, almost 4% were found positive for hepatitis C and 1% for hepatitis B after screening with PCR. Pearson’s Chi-square test showed a strong relationship of hepatitis B/C infection with marital status (p= 0.000), hepatitis B vaccination status (p= 0.000), blood or blood product recipient (p= 0.000), having a tattoo, family income (p= 0.026) and participant age (p= 0.000). Multivariable analysis showed hepatitis B vaccination odds ratio (OR) =5.309 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.812-10.025), population exposed to therapeutic injections four-times/past 6 months OR=4.328 (95% CI 1.319-13.617) dental visit four-time/past six months OR=11.9 (95% CI 3.350-40.098) people having exposure to HCV patients ≥6 times/past six months OR=3.095 (95% CI 1.577-6.074) and age of the participants OR=1.049 (95% CI 1.026-1.072) were independently associated with hepatitis C infection. Conclusions: These findings show that the risk of hepatitis B/C is multifactorial. However, on multivariate analysis, no association was found between hepatitis C incidence and blood donation, blood recipient, nose/ear piercing, barber visit, tattooing, drug abuse, marital status, family income and education status.