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Dr. John Hong
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Bell’s Palsy | Nothing to Smile About

Audrey Hepburn in “Funny Face” was stunning in front of camera of her fashion photograph, Fred Astaire. She was most magnificent when she walked down the stairs in the Louve while holding a red scarf that floated up like a parachute. “Hello, Audrey!” Her face, charm, and style made her an international [...]

Meningioma | Mary Tyler Moore’s Brain Tumor

Mary Tyler Moore was America’s sweetheart on her show. What will happen to our heroine as she faces a brain tumor?
Mary Tyler Moore announced she has a meningioma, the most common type of primary brain tumor. The brain tumor comes from the meninges, which is the clear lining that surrounds the brain. I remember in [...]

Guillain-Barre Syndrome | Fast Paralysis

Stage fright can paralyze the whole body. Remember Shirley Jones in The Partridge Family when her character had to sing for the first time? She got lockjaw and couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe!
Stage frights isn’t something I understand because I love to be on stage! We just had another family cruise, and guess who came in [...]

Anterograde Amenesia | “Memories, like the corner of my…what?”

“Forget it– it never happened!”
How many times have we heard that from dysfunctional or unethical people? (Or at least in TV, movies, and books?)
If you’re like an elephant, you never forget anything. Some people can hold onto a grudge longer than a parent who reminds a daughter how she ruined Thanksgiving in 1942 by [...]

Concussions | More than seeing stars

Kiefer Sutherland’s TV hit, 24, is truly whacked– as in whack everyone in the head. I’ve never seen so many people knocked out in any show. It’s so medically unrealistic: they’re all clearly suffering concussions, yet they function at a high level when they regain consciousness. But then again, Jack Bauer has died twice [...]

Huntington’s Disease (HD) | A Genetic Disaster

“Inheritance is the retirement plan for “gold diggers.”
As much fun as I thought Anna Nicole Smith was, let’s face it: she wouldn’t have married a man 63 years older than she was (wasn’t he 88 when she pushed his wheelchair down the aisle?) if he weren’t a billionaire. (On the flip side, he [...]

Sleep Deprived | Lack of sleep can be a real snore

Sleepy? My best friend in medical school and I used to study in the basement of the medical school library. The desks were like little cubicles to ensure privacy, although they made me feel like a horse with blinders on.
A library being a library, it was very quiet — with one exception. Snoooooooore!!!! One dude [...]

Cervical Dystonia | A Pain in the Neck!

Pain in the neck? A human resource specialist told me that 95 percent of his work is dealing with the 5 percent of employees who are a pain in the neck.
Albert Einstein said something like five minutes with a bore seems like an hour, yet one hour in the company of a beautiful woman [...]

Neuropathy | Out of Touch

iTouch and iPhone have some competition now: myTouch.
My goodness– um, not a new phone. I have an iPhone and love, love, love it. I touch the screen and voila, it does what I want! Forget actually calling someone. It offers email, the Internet, text messaging, photographs, fun and informative applications, and more. It [...]

Migraine Headaches Video : Not tonight honey

Forty million Americans suffer from migraine headaches, mostly women. Migraine affliction peaks by age 40. What is migraine disorder? You need at least five headaches lasting 4-72 hours associated with nausea/vomiting or photophobia (lights hurt your eyes– kind of like staring at the sun) or phonophobia (sounds hurt your ears– kind of like listening [...]

Multiple Sclerosis | MS

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a breakdown of the nervous system. MS afflicts over 350,000 Americans. MS is #1 cause of disability in young adults that isn’t trauma
I have an impostor. Yes, I knew after achieving a certain level of fame (I wish!) that I would eventually have an impostor. What next, a stalker? [...]

TIA : The Small Stroke That Can Become The Big One

Stroke of luck. Have you had any lately? I don’t know the last time I was affected by a stroke of luck. I golfed my entire childhood and always tried to keep my strokes down, but it seemed it was always the last three holes that destroyed my score. Michael Phelps had amazing strokes [...]

Parkinson’s Disease | More than a shaky matter

Parkison’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain. Parkinson’s affects brain that control movement. Parkinson’s has a pill-rolling tremor.

Sex Induced Headaches | Orgasm Headache

Sex induced headaches: pre-orgasmic & orgasm types of sexual headaches. Orgasm headaches are usually very painful. Explosive onset just before or during orgasm.

Spinal Stenosis: pinched nerves in the back and neck

Spinal stenosis can pinch down on the spinal cord or roots. Spinal stenosis can cause a lot of misery. Spinal stenosis usually from osteoarthritis in back or neck.

Tinnitis: Ringing in your ear isn’t from someone talking about you

Tinnitus means the perception of sound that a person hears when there is no external source for sound. Tinnitus affects 50 million Americans, 12 million really suffer from it

Meningococcal Meningitis – More than a pain in the neck

College is supposed to be the best four years of your life. I don’t think that applies to me. I’m going to my 21st year class reunion (Black Jack!), and yet I still have dreams of going to back to college.
Most folks dream they really haven’t graduated because they didn’t finished a class. In [...]

Concussions – More than a bonk to the head

Kiefer Sutherland’s TV hit, 24, is truly whacked– as in whack everyone in the head. I’ve never seen so many people knocked out in any show. It’s so medically unrealistic: they’re all clearly suffering concussions, yet they function at a high level when they regain consciousness. But then again, Jack Bauer has died twice [...]

B12 Deficiency

“She may be weary, Women do get weary, Wearing the same shabby dress…” Don’t you ever get tired and demoralized, feeling like you’ve been run down by a 100-ton freighter?
This is not a multivitamin commercial, as I’m not an advocate for multivitamins; I’m an advocate for eating balanced healthy meals to get vitamins [...]

Sex Induced Headaches

Sex causes a major headache for many people. John Edwards finally admitted to have sex with another woman, while his wife battles breast cancer. Hopefully, the main reason he has a headache now is that his wife conked him on the head.
Danny Bonaduce (aka Danny Partridge) married a woman on their blind date [...]

Acute Low Back Pain

Hayden Panettiere, the auto-regenerating cheerleader from Heroes, is Ms. Paparazzi Queen! You know you’re hot stuff when you’re filmed and photographed while getting a mani-pedi. On one episode, while painting her toenails, Hayden cut off her pinky toe to see if it would regenerate— which it did, just like a starfish!
Now, I’ve [...]

Multiple Sclerosis | MS

I have an impostor. Yes, I knew after achieving a certain level of fame (I wish!) that I would eventually have an impostor. What next, a stalker? (I don’t recommend anyone stalking me because I can scream at such a high pitch it would make Yoko Ono seem like Barry White.)
There’s another [...]

BPV – Benign Positional Vertigo – Get off the Merry Go Round

Eighties music will live in my heart like a Celine Dion song. Okay, ix-nay on the eline-Cay ion-Day part. My mother sang opera before she went to medical school, and so I was raised on classical music. Rock and roll music made my mother swoon-while singing a high C-aaaaaah! So I didn’t really get [...]

Tension Headache – What a pain in the head!

Tension can be a good thing. A tightrope walker needs a good tense rope. Tension in the theater can make the difference between a B movie and an A movie. The View became more popular with all the tension that occurred with Rosie O’Donnell. Personally, I’m wound so tightly that if I relax, I’ll [...]

Parkinson’s Disease : More than a shaky matter

Michael J. Fox and I have some similarities! Okay, besides the fact that we are both short, we were both born in Canada! Yes, I was practically born in a little igloo in Canada before we moved to the US.
Let’s face it, we all love Canadians. As far as I know, there [...]

Alcoholic Cerebellar Degeneration : Worse than putting a lamp shade on your head

Dionne Warwick ruled the airwaves before her show, Solid Gold, became tainted with green and her Psychic Hotline went bankrupt-couldn’t predict that!
“If you see me walking down the street, And I start to cry, Each time we meet, Walk on by… dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.” Johnny Cash Walked the Line and probably [...]

Spinal Stenosis: pinched nerves in the back and neck

Penny pinching is no longer just a memory of the ’30s and the Great Depression. When gasoline and milk flirt with $3/gallon, Elsie the cow is going to be a billionaire but not able to afford to drive around in her Rolls Royce. She’s going to have to walk to moooooove along. Medical co-payments are [...]

Tinnitis: Ringing in your ear isn’t from someone talking about you

Vincent van Gogh is one of my favorite painters of all time. He was so ahead of his time that he didn’t know his “Starry Night” painting would look like a type of lymphoma under the microscope!
It’s so sad van Gogh didn’t make money with his paintings. In fact, rumors abound that he sold [...]

Fatigue: More than Army Wear

I would never survive in jail. When I was a UVA fellow, I interviewed at the local jail for a moonlighting position. I suddenly related to my mother’s experience as medical resident in NYC when she had to help at the local lock-up. Whooping, hollering (unlike Gwen Stefani, who ain’t no Hollaback Girl), and name-calling– [...]

Restless Leg Syndrome: RLS shakes and grooves all night long

Dr. Christopher Winter came for lunch and told us about all sorts of sleeping problems. He said his office lobby is filled with patients who are snoring, bobbing their heads up and down– struggling to stay awake, drooping eyes red as Darth Maul’s. Hmm, sounds like my dinner parties. Maybe he should play techno dance [...]

Migraine Headaches: Not tonight honey

What is the deal with all the TV reality shows? Weren’t The Brady Bunch and The Cosby Show good enough? Now, when I’m on the elliptical rider at the gym, I see people on Fear Factor eat everything but nuclear waste.
At home, I prefer “quality” reality TV (if I ever get a chance to [...]

Tremors: What’s Shaking?

During my first year in medical residency in Los Angeles, we experienced an earthquake that rocked my world. Well, actually at the time I was visiting my significant other at UVA, but when I returned to LA, I had the unfortunate thrill of experiencing after-shocks. (I always thought “after-shocks” occurred in family situations, like finally [...]

Sea Sickness: My body lies over the ocean — bleh!

Last year I went on my first cruise, and it was truly paradise! The sun was shining in the Caribbean, a band was playing by the outdoor pools, a man greeted us with Bahama Mamas, and the ship was filled with anticipation.
I expected Julie McCoy and Captain Steubing (from that 1970s cheesefest known [...]