A growing number of Dubai residents are turning up at consultations describing the same puzzling state: they aren’t sick, yet they don’t feel right. Sequoia Clinic reports that patient complaints of exhaustion, disrupted sleep, mental fog, stomach trouble, and skin flare-ups have climbed through the summer months, with many describing a general sense of running below their normal capacity.
The clinic identifies five patterns that surface repeatedly in these visits: low energy and tiredness, sleep that fails to restore, digestive trouble, difficulty concentrating, and skin problems. According to clinicians, these rarely show up one at a time. Stomach issues frequently follow travel and shifts in what and when people eat, while inadequate hydration and broken sleep feed into the mental cloudiness patients describe. Skin takes a hit as well, with breakouts, uneven pigmentation, dryness, and heightened sensitivity growing more visible once heat, humidity, and interrupted skincare habits set in.
Sequoia Clinic points to a widespread assumption it considers misguided: that surviving a Dubai summer is simply a matter of drinking more and staying out of the sun. Hydration, the clinic notes, hinges on more than fluid intake alone. Electrolyte levels, diet, travel, stress, and hours spent under air conditioning all factor in, and when reduced activity and irregular routines pile on, the effects ripple across several areas of wellbeing at once.
The clinic is careful to note that high temperatures are not the sole driver. What clinicians are observing instead is the combined weight of several seasonal changes particular to the season in Dubai, among them broken routines, fluid loss, time away traveling, less physical activity, altered eating patterns, extended stretches in cooled indoor spaces, and generally more time spent inside. No single element explains the pattern; it is the accumulation that pushes people beneath their usual baseline.
“What works for your body in winter won’t necessarily work in summer, and that’s not a failure, it’s physiology,” said Anna Wibage, CEO of Sequoia Clinic. “When the temperature rises and routines shift, the body is managing a different set of stressors, from disrupted sleep and changes in appetite to reduced movement and a less structured diet. Patients are increasingly recognising that their bodies have different needs at different times of the year. Rather than simply being told their results are ‘normal’, they want to understand whether they are functioning optimally and how they can better support their health through those seasonal transitions.”
There is also a change in attitude accompanying the physical symptoms. Where residents might once have written off these complaints as an unavoidable feature of the hot months, the clinic finds that more of them now want to know what lies behind the changes. That curiosity is translating into a preference for prevention over quick remedies, with patients increasingly focused on recovery and on grasping how their bodies are performing before the demands of the later year set back in.
