Vocal Cord Dysfunction – Vagus

Transcript

“This all comes from an injury to a nerve called the vagus nerve. VAGUS, not like Las Vegas, but VAGUS VAGUS. When the vagus gets injured, you have a certain series of symptoms. The vagus is one of the 12 nerves from the brain, which we call cranial nerves, that controls vital functions. The vagus controls breathing, talking, coughing. So when the vagus is injured, you will have some injury in some of these vital functions. And what happens when you go to sleep, essentially the vagus nerve goes to sleep. So it won’t wake you up in the middle of the night. When you exercise, you overcome the resting tone of the vagus. That’s why you’re generally able to exercise, but it’s after exercise when the resting tone of the vagus becomes more prominent, that you start to feel symptoms. The way we diagnose this is that the vocal folds slowly close after the patient says a passage. I like to use the words or the phrase “”we see three green trees.”” So “”we see three green trees,”” the vocal cord should open, with vocal cord dysfunction, “”we see three green trees,”” boom, the vocal cord stays shut. It’s not a squeezing shut like laryngo spasm. It’s a gentle closure and it stays closed for seconds at a time. Sometimes it’s just during quiet breathing instead of staying up here, the vocal cords keep shutting.

And once we see that whether or not we have the spirometry results, we’re able to treat it with two basic techniques. One is a speech therapy technique called respiratory retraining, which is increased resistance breathing exercises given by a highly trained speech therapist. And the other is some dietary modifications. Generally we avoid a handful of very acidic foods, sodas, bottled iced teas, citrus, tomato sauce, vinegar, wine, for a period of time to sort of cool off the areas of irritation in the throat. And then I like to use certain smoothies and juices that have micronutrients that reduce swelling in this area. So the treatment is very holistic. It’s a physical therapy technique, it’s dietary and behavioral modifications. So if you’re experiencing this as a patient or as a caretaker, you’re noticing people that have persistent shortness of breath with or without cough, they’ve had COVID-19 or in the time of COVID-19, have them see their ear, nose and throat doctor.”
And once we see that whether or not we have the spirometry results, we’re able to treat it with two basic techniques. One is a speech therapy technique called respiratory retraining, which is increased resistance breathing exercises given by a highly trained speech therapist. And the other is some dietary modifications. Generally we avoid a handful of very acidic foods, sodas, bottled iced teas, citrus, tomato sauce, vinegar, wine, for a period of time to sort of cool off the areas of irritation in the throat. And then I like to use certain smoothies and juices that have micronutrients that reduce swelling in this area. So the treatment is very holistic. It’s a physical therapy technique, it’s dietary and behavioral modifications. So if you’re experiencing this as a patient or as a caretaker, you’re noticing people that have persistent shortness of breath with or without cough, they’ve had COVID-19 or in the time of COVID-19, have them see their ear, nose and throat doctor.”