Latest / 987 The Shock Circuit / INTERVIEW: ADJ A/PROF JONATHAN ONG, SENIOR CONSULTANT NEUROLOGIST AT NUHS
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: I actually wonder if our guest joining us in a
- 0:05Speaker 1: few seconds is following the World Cup. We have to
- 0:08Speaker 1: ask him in just a while. That and also maybe
- 0:10Speaker 1: he might be seeing an increase of patients complaining about
- 0:13Speaker 1: because poor sleep cycle. Oh yes, or headache or migraines.
- 0:16Speaker 1: You're talking about yourself. I know it. Yeah, I get
- 0:18Speaker 1: a free consult today, is it? But anyway, joining us
- 0:22Speaker 1: in the studio in this interview segment very proudly brought
- 0:24Speaker 1: to you by Pfizer, we have senior consultant neurologist at
- 0:28Speaker 1: the National University Health System at.
- 0:31Speaker 1: associate professor. Say hello to Jonathan Ong. Hello, sir, in
- 0:35Speaker 1: the studio. Good to see you,
- 0:36Speaker 1: man.
- 0:36Speaker 2: here. Morning invitation.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Of course. Thank you for being here. You, you look
- 0:40Speaker 1: all geared up to go to work right after this
- 0:42Speaker 1: already.
- 0:42Speaker 2: Certainly, yeah, it's a busy day, Monday.
- 0:44Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you got to get down to it immediately.
- 0:46Speaker 1: That's where most of the MCs are produced, is it Mondays?
- 0:49Speaker 1: As you, as you can see, our personality difference is
- 0:52Speaker 1: there la, very different. OK, so let's just go straight
- 0:56Speaker 1: down to it because early on we were already saying what.
- 0:59Speaker 1: What's the difference between a headache and a migraine because
- 1:03Speaker 1: we sometimes throw these words around too casually, right? Can
- 1:07Speaker 1: you just maybe fill us in first to kick things off?
- 1:09Speaker 2: I think that's very important. So basically, um, headache is
- 1:15Speaker 2: a symptom, right, uh, what the patient feels, right? Whereas
- 1:18Speaker 2: a migraine is a diagnosis, right? Uh, basically it's a clinician's, um, job, right,
- 1:24Speaker 2: to figure out why does that headache, uh, happen and
- 1:27Speaker 2: what is the
- 1:27Speaker 2: The reason behind it. So if I may just draw
- 1:30Speaker 2: an analogy, you know, many of our listeners today, right,
- 1:34Speaker 2: they will be driving in the car. So suddenly, you know, you,
- 1:37Speaker 2: you see uh uh engine light pop up right in
- 1:40Speaker 2: front of your dashboard.
- 1:41Speaker 2: So you'll be wondering what's wrong with my car? Why
- 1:43Speaker 2: is that engine light popping up? So it's the mechanic, i.e.
- 1:46Speaker 2: the doctor, right, in this case, uh, having to open
- 1:50Speaker 2: up the hood to find out exactly what's happening and,
- 1:53Speaker 2: and to diagnose the, the issue, right? The, the, the
- 1:56Speaker 2: light pops up because your spark plug, for example, is malfunctioning. Yeah,
- 2:01Speaker 2: so fascinating question.
- 2:03Speaker 2: Symptoms versus um a diagnosis.
- 2:06Speaker 1: So
- 2:06Speaker 1: in terms of Singapore, I'm very sure we all love
- 2:09Speaker 1: our numbers here. Well, what are the steps of people
- 2:12Speaker 1: having these kind of conditions, headaches, and then it becomes
- 2:15Speaker 1: a migraine, right? So
- 2:16Speaker 2: if you look at migraine, uh, per se as a diagnosis, uh,
- 2:20Speaker 2: about 1 in 10, um, uh, you know, in Singapore,
- 2:23Speaker 2: the population will have this, uh, diagnosis, um, and, uh,
- 2:28Speaker 2: at any point in time,
- 2:30Speaker 2: Uh, we are looking at about um 8 to 10%,
- 2:34Speaker 2: you know, um, in terms of the general population having
- 2:37Speaker 2: this condition.
- 2:46Speaker 1: They were so worried about it. They were like, what's
- 2:48Speaker 1: going on? Do we need to bring her to a
- 2:49Speaker 1: specialist or GP was like, hm, you know, nothing much
- 2:52Speaker 1: you can do. Maybe you want to see a specialist. So,
- 2:55Speaker 1: of course, me being the only child, uh, they're like overprotective, overworried,
- 2:59Speaker 1: and they were concerned that it was a neurological issue
- 3:01Speaker 1: or like something. So for parents tuning in right now,
- 3:04Speaker 1: perhaps with like young children who might complain of these symptoms,
- 3:08Speaker 1: when is it important to say, OK, we need to
- 3:12Speaker 1: go see a specialist now?
- 3:14Speaker 2: I think Sonia, that's a, a great question. Um, we do, um,
- 3:17Speaker 2: from time to time see, uh, children with headaches, but
- 3:21Speaker 2: they don't occur so, uh, frequently as compared to the
- 3:26Speaker 2: adults and, and generally I would say that, you know, if, uh,
- 3:29Speaker 2: the child is, uh, having persistent, frequent, daily even, uh,
- 3:34Speaker 2: headaches or, um, associated with, uh, you know, um, affecting
- 3:38Speaker 2: their schoolwork, for example, or symptoms like nausea, vomiting.
- 3:43Speaker 2: Uh, becomes really unbearable, then I think it's time to
- 3:46Speaker 2: seek medical attention.
- 3:49Speaker 1: So in earlier I brought this up on TikTok Live
- 3:51Speaker 1: and on air as well. We're all in our high
- 3:53Speaker 1: rocks eras. We're all doing marathons. We're all doing this,
- 3:56Speaker 1: and for me, I know after a full marathon there'll
- 4:00Speaker 1: always be that dehydration headache that I'll have. And there
- 4:04Speaker 1: was even once where I was having a long drive
- 4:06Speaker 1: in New Zealand where I was just attacked by now
- 4:09Speaker 1: I'm just wondering, do I call it a migraine.
- 4:11Speaker 1: Yeah, I had to actually stop my car, spend the
- 4:13Speaker 1: night in a motel, and take two Panadols and just
- 4:15Speaker 1: put like a pillow on my head. Was this a
- 4:19Speaker 1: migraine or was this a headache because I did feel
- 4:22Speaker 1: like vomiting as well, nausea. And what are some of
- 4:24Speaker 1: the warning signs that a headache might now become a
- 4:28Speaker 1: migraine for me,
- 4:29Speaker 2: right? So, um, coming back to what we said earlier, right, uh,
- 4:32Speaker 2: migraine headache is just one part of the story. Um,
- 4:36Speaker 2: there are many other symptoms, right, uh, that.
- 4:38Speaker 2: That are associated with migraines. So it's the light and
- 4:40Speaker 2: sound sensitivity, it's the nausea, it's the uh the vomiting,
- 4:45Speaker 2: and also that movement sensitivity. Now, I think joking, you know,
- 4:49Speaker 2: what you've mentioned is something uh quite uh pertinent in
- 4:53Speaker 2: terms of triggers for a migraine attack in somebody who
- 4:57Speaker 2: is uh predisposed to migraine. So, um, you know, if
- 5:01Speaker 2: you don't drink enough water,
- 5:03Speaker 2: Right, or you're stressed, right? Let's say you were driving, right?
- 5:05Speaker 2: Long hours, sunlight, uh, paying close attention to the, the
- 5:10Speaker 2: road conditions, and then you don't eat well, you don't
- 5:12Speaker 2: drink well. If you're a migrainer, you can certainly trigger
- 5:16Speaker 2: an attack. So even for myself, I'm a gym goer, right? Uh,
- 5:22Speaker 2: my friends, they go to high rocks, right? And some
- 5:24Speaker 2: of them are migrainers, they, they live with migraine. Now,
- 5:27Speaker 2: if you don't pay attention, you don't have sufficient hydration
- 5:30Speaker 2: before you commence your exercise.
- 5:33Speaker 2: Right, or you don't take a small fruit, you might
- 5:36Speaker 2: drop the sugar levels in the blood and then that
- 5:39Speaker 2: may trigger, uh, a migraine, yeah,
- 5:43Speaker 1: something as simple as Panadol to fix it or, you know, paracetamol.
- 5:46Speaker 2: The good news is, um, if you take paracetamol or
- 5:51Speaker 2: any form of painkiller early, right, you would tend to stem, uh,
- 5:55Speaker 2: the progression of those symptoms that I talked about. It's
- 5:57Speaker 2: the disability that actually counts, so it's just not the headache,
- 6:01Speaker 2: you know, sometimes people.
- 6:02Speaker 2: You know, off work, it's, it's crippling, right? So the
- 6:06Speaker 2: earlier that you take something, right, it, it, uh, sort
- 6:09Speaker 2: of limits the symptoms and then therefore you can get
- 6:12Speaker 2: on with life.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Can I, can I go off script for a little
- 6:16Speaker 1: bit because I feel like a free consult right now. No, no, no, no,
- 6:20Speaker 1: this was inspired by, uh, I mean, all my years
- 6:22Speaker 1: I've known, even most recently at her wedding, a hangover headache.
- 6:28Speaker 2: This is a very, very, very common trigger.
- 6:32Speaker 2: Yeah, so some, some people, um, you know, they, it's fascinating.
- 6:37Speaker 2: In fact, we can go on and on about alcohol, uh, and, uh,
- 6:41Speaker 2: migraine attacks. It certainly triggers in somebody who is, uh,
- 6:45Speaker 2: prone to get migraines and it's also a little bit
- 6:47Speaker 2: about that dehydration, right? If you drink, um, uh, alcohol,
- 6:52Speaker 2: and sometimes it's just not about the amount, you know,
- 6:54Speaker 2: you can have just half a cup and if you
- 6:56Speaker 2: are a person living with migraine and you're susceptible, alcohol
- 7:00Speaker 2: can certainly trigger.
- 7:02Speaker 2: Right, so to those who, you know, like a cup
- 7:04Speaker 2: or two, of course, be careful, you know, don't drive, right? Drink,
- 7:09Speaker 2: don't drive. Make sure that you're well hydrated,
- 7:11Speaker 1: right?
- 7:12Speaker 2: Ensure that you're well
- 7:13Speaker 1: hydrated. Yeah, I, I was just, you know, all these
- 7:16Speaker 1: moments flashing in my mind of, of.
- 7:20Speaker 1: And also wondering whether like different types of alcohol have
- 7:23Speaker 1: different effects on you. I'm sure people have different levels
- 7:26Speaker 1: of sensitivity as well
- 7:27Speaker 1: to that.
- 7:28Speaker 2: It's a common question. Sometimes it's about the, the, the
- 7:31Speaker 2: what is the uh the drink. Some people will say that, oh,
- 7:35Speaker 2: you know, champagne, bubblies, right, certainly will trigger an attack,
- 7:38Speaker 2: but if they drink, um, like a biodynamic red wine, right,
- 7:42Speaker 2: nowadays this thing called biodynamic red wine, the sulfides, the nitrates, yeah.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Uh, if, if, if it triggers, then, you know, um,
- 7:50Speaker 2: so these are some of the components in alcohol that
- 7:53Speaker 2: could trigger.
- 7:54Speaker 1: One last question before we take a break, um, on
- 7:57Speaker 1: that note as well, I also heard that sugar could
- 7:59Speaker 1: be the cause of contribute to hangovers. Is that, is
- 8:03Speaker 1: that
- 8:03Speaker 1: true?
- 8:04Speaker 2: I, I think it's the
- 8:05Speaker 1: tails and all that, you know.
- 8:07Speaker 2: No, I, I, I think that's, that's perhaps a misconception, but,
- 8:10Speaker 2: but rather I would say the
- 8:13Speaker 2: Low sugar levels, very common, uh, trigger for, for migraine attacks.
- 8:19Speaker 2: And therefore, if you recall what we mentioned earlier, if you, uh,
- 8:23Speaker 2: embark on very, uh, exercise, right, that's too intense, then
- 8:28Speaker 2: it's a good idea to always take a small fruit
- 8:31Speaker 2: or an energy bar just before your exercise so that you, um,
- 8:36Speaker 2: you know, uh, curtail that sugar fluctuation.
- 8:39Speaker 1: prevent
- 8:39Speaker 1: that. When we come back here on the Shocir, we're
- 8:41Speaker 1: gonna find out more about when a migraine becomes a
- 8:44Speaker 1: chronic migraine, and you know, prevention is better than cure.
- 8:48Speaker 1: Can it be prevented? You know, we sound like experts,
- 8:51Speaker 1: but we're not. We've got an expert here in the
- 8:52Speaker 1: studio and just want to say hi to Brian. Hi,
- 8:55Speaker 1: Doctor Jonathan, Pfizer team listening in the office right now
- 8:59Speaker 1: on TikTok that's on TikTok. So we're still there. We'll
- 9:01Speaker 1: take a quick break on air. We're still live on TikTok.
- 9:03Speaker 1: Be back in a few minutes.
- 9:07Speaker 1: It's Sonia and Joakim on the Shock circuit on 987.
- 9:12Speaker 1: I was just having a chat and a good laugh
- 9:14Speaker 1: off-air as well, but also addressing some of your answers
- 9:17Speaker 1: on TikTok. Yeah, so if you just joined us live
- 9:19Speaker 1: on air, we are being joined by senior consultant neurologist
- 9:23Speaker 1: at the National University Health System, adjunct Associate Professor Jonathan Ong,
- 9:27Speaker 1: and we're talking about the differences between a headache and
- 9:31Speaker 1: a migraine. So we've touched on quite important topics. In
- 9:34Speaker 1: case you missed it earlier, part one of it, you
- 9:36Speaker 1: can go catch up on me.
- 9:37Speaker 1: Listen in Spotify, but right now, I, I, I do
- 9:40Speaker 1: wanna ask this in terms of a migraine and the
- 9:44Speaker 1: patients that come to see you, when they share about
- 9:47Speaker 1: how it has affected their daily lives, what are some
- 9:50Speaker 1: of the common things that affects for for the migraines? So,
- 9:53Speaker 2: so it's a disabling condition, right? And a lot of
- 9:57Speaker 2: them say that it takes away the meaningful parts of
- 10:01Speaker 2: their life, being a parent, being a spouse, being a
- 10:05Speaker 2: good worker.
- 10:07Speaker 2: So I think um and, and judging from the, the
- 10:09Speaker 2: age range, right, it's, it's anybody from 25 all the
- 10:14Speaker 2: way up to even 65, but I have patients 80
- 10:18Speaker 2: years old and above, right? So it really affects a
- 10:21Speaker 2: lot of people and, and uh it's disabling and therefore
- 10:24Speaker 2: their quality of life is affected and.
- 10:27Speaker 2: And they really want something to be done so that
- 10:29Speaker 2: they can live life as normally as possible. And
- 10:35Speaker 1: man,
- 10:37Speaker 2: right? Absolutely, So, I'm glad. Um, nowadays, uh, you know,
- 10:40Speaker 2: unlike a decade ago, right, the a better understanding of the,
- 10:46Speaker 2: the science behind migraine is just not a headache, but
- 10:49Speaker 2: there's actually
- 10:50Speaker 2: Um, a science behind it, we can pinpoint what's, what's happening,
- 10:54Speaker 2: you know, uh, and therefore there are new treatments, uh,
- 10:57Speaker 2: increasingly available, um, targeting at the very basis of why
- 11:02Speaker 2: migraine happens. So there's hope for, um, you know, listeners
- 11:06Speaker 2: who have been
- 11:07Speaker 2: Um, you struggling with headaches and seemingly there's no, uh, no, uh, cure.
- 11:13Speaker 2: I'm not saying that there's a cure, but with these medications,
- 11:16Speaker 2: we are able to gain back the quality of life
- 11:18Speaker 2: that I talked
- 11:18Speaker 2: about.
- 11:21Speaker 1: For women it's a bit different because I was just
- 11:23Speaker 1: bringing this up earlier, right, I'm not sure whether our
- 11:26Speaker 1: hormonal changes also contribute to more of these situations because I,
- 11:30Speaker 1: I experienced it a lot.
- 11:31Speaker 1: especially during that time of the month, I get sometimes
- 11:34Speaker 1: very crippling headaches that sometimes I'm wondering, is it a
- 11:36Speaker 1: migraine as
- 11:37Speaker 1: well.
- 11:38Speaker 2: So, um, a large part of, um, uh, a migraine
- 11:43Speaker 2: can be hormonally driven. So it's actually the peri uh
- 11:47Speaker 2: menses period just before a few days to up to
- 11:51Speaker 2: a week before the onset of the actual flow.
- 11:54Speaker 2: And even uh beyond the the the onset of the flow,
- 11:56Speaker 2: we can still continue to be troublesome. So, um, this
- 12:00Speaker 2: is in fact something that I often talk about with,
- 12:03Speaker 2: with my patients in clinic and there are actually good ways,
- 12:07Speaker 2: very simple ways, uh, that we can help to deal
- 12:09Speaker 2: with this time of the month.
- 12:12Speaker 1: So men?
- 12:14Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 12:15Speaker 1: Oh wow, I was just wondering, yeah,
- 12:18Speaker 2: 3 times more common.
- 12:19Speaker 2: Uh, in the female gender as compared to the male gender.
- 12:23Speaker 1: OK, time of the month aside, given how Sonia and
- 12:26Speaker 1: I are shift workers, yeah, yeah, I'm very sure maybe
- 12:32Speaker 1: after what you just explained, migraines are more prevalent in
- 12:35Speaker 1: people who work shifts and wee hours of the night
- 12:37Speaker 1: or mornings. Right,
- 12:38Speaker 2: spot on. So, um, sleep deprivation, right, it's a very,
- 12:43Speaker 2: very common trigger.
- 12:44Speaker 2: And you can imagine those working shifts like yourselves, uh, um,
- 12:48Speaker 2: fellow colleagues, right, in the hospital, nurses on call, SCDF personnel, right, um,
- 12:55Speaker 2: you know, they, it's a very common trigger, right? Uh,
- 12:59Speaker 2: in fact, oversleeping can also trigger headaches, so it's both ways,
- 13:02Speaker 2: it's just not the, the sleep deprivation.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Thankfully.
- 13:08Speaker 1: I oversleeping a couple of times I wake up very
- 13:12Speaker 1: groggy and thinking that the sleep will help, but after
- 13:16Speaker 1: 2 or 3 hours I wake up, oh, it's worse.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Is that because you're dehydrated over the night, I
- 13:21Speaker 2: think the
- 13:23Speaker 2: the migrainous brain loves 11 word, regularity. So from Monday
- 13:30Speaker 2: to Sunday, if you, if you have a migraine, um,
- 13:33Speaker 2: I would urge you to
- 13:34Speaker 2: Uh, perhaps regularize, if there's such a word for it,
- 13:37Speaker 2: your lifestyle, right? Um, sleep at the same time, wake
- 13:41Speaker 2: up at the same time. What is the magic number,
- 13:43Speaker 2: you know, it's, it's for one, to determine themselves, right,
- 13:47Speaker 2: but just enough, right, um, and, and not, uh, sleep in.
- 13:51Speaker 2: I know it, it, it sounds difficult. Uh, the tendency
- 13:55Speaker 2: is for us to be sleep deprived on a week, uh,
- 13:58Speaker 2: during the weekdays, and then on the weekend we try.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 14:01Speaker 2: Yeah, but for migraines, that's perhaps not a good idea.
- 14:06Speaker 2: It's the regularity that counts.
- 14:08Speaker 1: Maybe this is why I'm routine. It's very hard to
- 14:13Speaker 1: break my routine, you get the migraine. Yes, I have
- 14:17Speaker 1: my answers I've been seeking. Hey, thank you so much
- 14:20Speaker 1: for doing this with us here this morning. I think
- 14:22Speaker 1: it was really enlightening. My pleasure. Um, you know, once
- 14:25Speaker 1: we get off.
- 14:26Speaker 1: We would love to read some of these questions out
- 14:28Speaker 1: that our listeners and viewers are dying to know about.
- 14:31Speaker 1: Can I ask one more question? Last one before we
- 14:33Speaker 1: wrap it up, of course. Thank you guys. Can we
- 14:35Speaker 1: prevent a migraine without any medication? Maybe stay hydrated, maybe, yeah,
- 14:42Speaker 1: like away from simple, simple lifestyle stuff. If you feel
- 14:45Speaker 1: like a migraine attack is coming, how can we prevent
- 14:48Speaker 1: it or straightaway address it's
- 14:49Speaker 2: excellent question. I gotta say
- 14:50Speaker 1: I sniff Hongtai, you know, you know.
- 14:53Speaker 1: You know, the Thai, the Thai, yeah. I'm sorry, I
- 14:57Speaker 1: have to, hey, look, that's representative of like 80% of Singaporeans, OK,
- 15:01Speaker 1: we definitely do that, right? OK, yeah.
- 15:02Speaker 2: So I'm gonna answer Joakim's question, right? So the answer is, uh, yes,
- 15:06Speaker 2: and very much so. Uh, while we mentioned that there
- 15:09Speaker 2: are good treatment.
- 15:10Speaker 2: Now, right, uh, actually a large part of, um, the
- 15:14Speaker 2: management of migraine is non-pharmacological, which means that, you know, it's, it's, um,
- 15:20Speaker 2: good lifestyle, right, in terms of, um, watching your diet,
- 15:25Speaker 2: healthy diet is important, right?
- 15:28Speaker 2: Um, work ergonomics, right? If you're in front of the
- 15:31Speaker 2: computer and, and your livelihood depends on, um, the screen,
- 15:36Speaker 2: then please take periodic breaks in between, um, you know,
- 15:39Speaker 2: staring at the screen, and, and by the way, uh, a,
- 15:42Speaker 2: a blue screen filter is very helpful, right, to minimize
- 15:45Speaker 2: the strain.
- 15:46Speaker 2: And then exercise, I can't, um, you know, overemphasize this, right?
- 15:51Speaker 2: If you're not having a migraine attack, right, uh, one
- 15:53Speaker 2: of the ways, uh, that you can perhaps prevent one
- 15:57Speaker 2: is to, to exercise, right? Enjoy nature, get some sunlight,
- 16:02Speaker 2: you know, um, I, I think it goes a long way, right?
- 16:05Speaker 2: And this is just lifestyle, right? We have not even
- 16:09Speaker 2: touched on, uh, good medication that is fast becoming available.
- 16:13Speaker 2: And uh this is actually, um, you know, uh uh
- 16:17Speaker 2: uh uh it works hand in hand. So medication is
- 16:20Speaker 2: one part, but importantly, it's the lifestyle.
- 16:23Speaker 1: There we go. I
- 16:24Speaker 1: think the greatest takeaway from this is that it is
- 16:26Speaker 1: something that can be managed and helped. Yeah. Thank you
- 16:29Speaker 1: so much for that. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
- 16:32Speaker 1: And of course, if you want to catch up with
- 16:33Speaker 1: this entire interview and chat brought to you by Pfizer,
- 16:36Speaker 1: log on to me Listen and Spotify after the show
- 16:38Speaker 1: is over.