What Vasomotor Rhinitis Is

What Vasomotor Rhinitis Is Dr. Travis Stork: Yas is here now and Dr. Warner Carr join us via Polycom from his office. So first things first, how are you feeling? Female: I'm okay. Dr. Drew Ordon: So what was your final diagnosis if you could give her a diagnosis? Dr. Warner Carr: Well Yas (ph) has is something called vasomotor rhinitis. It’s a fancy word and it basically is a form of non-allergic rhinitis. It just means Yas that you have inflammation in your nose, your nasal cavity, your sinuses, and that inflammation, what’s happening is that this inflammation here is draining down the back of your throat. And it’s irritating the back of your throat that’s causing you to cough and it’s triggering these bronchitis episodes. And so the non-allergic rhinitis or vasomotor rhinitis is triggering asthmatic bronchitis. Dr. Drew Ordon: So actually, she has the components of both asthma and bronchitis, that’s why you called it asthmatic bronchitis. Dr. Warner Carr: Yes, and in fact asthma, asthma is a form of bronchitis you know. Asthma is a combination of two things. It’s airway narrowing that’s going to cause the cough, and it’s airway inflammation. Those are signs of bronchitis. When somebody has a bacterial bronchitis, they have inflammation and that causes them to cough and increase mucus production. That’s infectious bronchitis. She has asthmatic bronchitis. Bronchitis is almost a wastebasket turn and a lot of things can cause it. It’s very important if the patient has bronchitis, for them to see their doctor, so they can figure out why they have it. Your asthmatic bronchitis is not so severe that you need to take a daily controller medicine like an inhaled steroid. This is an inhaled steroid here that I'm holding up in front is an example of one. And this is a medicine people with regular asthma, not asthmatic bronchitis they need to take this every single day. What you have is an intermittent asthmatic bronchitis. So you’re going to need to take a rescue medicine like this, which is albuterol and there are several different forms of this. You only need to take this when you’re actively having an attack. What we need to do is control this. If we control this, then we can control this. Combinations of different nasal sprays will dry this up and stop that inflammation and prevent those triggers from coming up. Dr. Travis Stork: And there’s a great teaching point here now and for you, Yas and for everyone watching at home because if you’re getting diagnosed multiple times in a year with bronchitis, that that doesn’t mean just throwing antibiotics at an each and every time as going to do anything because you need to go to the root of the problem which for you is this “Vasomotor Rhinitis”. The inflammation up here that is triggering these bronchitis episodes and you’re going to work with her in terms of how to treat that so we can get away from you constantly stacking in a buy for which weren’t helping you. And I what I love about this is we’re talking about symptoms that you often ignore that can become serious. So Dr. Carr what other symptoms, respiratory symptoms should we not ignore because they may become worse? Dr. Warner Carr: Shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, coughing with exercise, decreased exercise tolerance, those are all warning signs that could be lung problems, potentially even be a heart problem. So those are some of the things you should consider. Dr. Travis Stork: Dr. Carr thank you for your invaluable insight, we appreciate it. And that’s good news. And good luck to you, Yas. I hope to solve your chronic bronchitis problems. Thanks for being with us.