Does your voice feel strained, hoarse or tired after a long day of talking?
Are you wondering how to heal strained vocal cords in an effective way so that you can
use your voice as soon as possible?
Here are 3 steps to a quick recovery.
Hi!
I am Katarina, speech language pathologist and here on this channel, I share practical
tips about using your voice in a healthy way.
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Let’s talk about vocal strain and what to do to get your voice back as soon as possible.
If you are not sure whether you are straining your voice, here is a quick rundown of how
to find out.
Your vocal cords, or vocal folds, come together when you speak.
There is breath pressure under the vocal folds and they respond to this pressure.
When there is a balanced pressure, the vocal folds work under good conditions.
When the air pressure is high, the vocal folds have to resist this pressure and as a result,
they may strain.
As a result, the vocal folds can become swollen.
Some of the most typical symptoms of swollen vocal folds are a deeper sounding voice and
an inability to produce high notes quietly.
That’s because swollen vocal cords are thicker due to a fluid build up inside them and thicker
vocal folds produce lower pitched sounds and have a hard time vibrating at high frequencies.
This thickening is actually a protective mechanism to avoid more serious damage to the vocal
folds.
The fluid creates a cushion or a barrier to protect the vocal folds.
A quick vocal fold swelling test would be singing the happy birthday song in your high
register quietly.
If you experience vocal breaks or difficulty starting the notes (that you did not have
before), you may have vocal fold swelling.
Let’s talk about how to soothe a strained voice.
Here are 4 steps that you need to take on the way to recovery:
Step 1 Rest Your Voice If you strained your voice, for example by
yelling, talking in a loud environment, singing outside of your vocal range, making unusual
sounds that left your voice tired, scratchy, hoarse, breathy or croaky, your voice needs
a break.
This can be challenging for chatty people.
But let me explain what vocal rest really means.
Vocal rest doesn’t mean absolutely no talking.
There are two types of vocal rest – absolute and relative.
An absolute vocal rest is prescribed for people with a serious vocal injury, such as vocal
hemorrhage or for people after a vocal surgery.
Hopefully, that is not you!
A relative vocal rest is using your voice for necessary communication needs and decreasing
demands on your voice.
So, you can continue talking but make sure that you are using your voice for vital communication
needs.
Do you need to speak at work?
Do it.
Do you need to speak to your family members?
Do it.
But you probably don’t need to talk on the phone while driving in the car, or you can
skip a pub crawl for a couple of nights.
Spend more time doing quiet activities, like reading, watching movies or texting to give
your voice a deserved break.
It takes a few days for the vocal folds to self-repair.
It’s an amazing human organ that heals fairly quickly if you give it time.
If you are experiencing vocal issues for more than 2 weeks, without the presence of acute
illness such as common cold or flu, talk to your doctor and ask for a referral to a laryngologist
to have your voice evaluated to avoid long-lasting vocal issues.
If you are experiencing chronic vocal strain, tension or even pain when speaking, and you
are ready to work towards a free, strong and confident voice, you can apply to our Vocal
Freedom System coaching program.
Check out this link or the links in the description below this video.
Stem 2 Hydrate Your Voice Hydration is a basic vocal hygiene rule and
it is the minimum everyone should do to keep the vocal folds in their best shape.
Drinking of water or consumption of foods with high water content are snail pace delivery
methods of hydration to our vocal folds.
It simply takes time for the benefits of drinking to show up in our voice.
The water that you drink does not come into direct contact with the vocal folds.
Therefore, I am a big fan of so-called external hydration, which is inhalation of moist air
either with the help of a steamer or nebulizer.
External hydration is the most direct way of hydrating your vocal folds and when they
are swollen, this is a wonderful method of providing them with their basic need.
Steaming may be helpful in bringing the swelling down.
You have a few options to steam your voice.
You can use a steam room at your local gym or spa, you can take a hot shower with a lot
of steam, you can use a personal steamer or nebulizer or you can do it the old fashioned
way - a towel over your head and a bowl of boiled water.
Any of these methods will do, they have their pros and cons and find that people have their
personal preferences as to what method they use or which personal steamer or nebulizer
they use.
If you can do a few short sessions of external hydration a day while you are trying to overcome
a strained voice, that would be great.
Maybe 3 times for a few minutes if you can.
Step 3 Do Gentle Vocal Exercises Even though your vocal folds are swollen you
can engage in gentle voicing.
SOVT or semi-occluded vocal tract exercises are a great tool for this purpose.
SOVT exercises are sounds that are created in a vocal tract with a partial narrowing.
For example, lip rolls have the narrowing at the lips, straw exercises create the narrowing
with the straw, the fricative V has a narrowing at the front of the mouth and the vowel eee
has a narrowing at the back of the mouth.
These are just a few examples.
SOVT exercises are very gentle on your vocal folds.
They use minimal vocal effort for sound production because the air pressures below and above
the vocal cords are equalized.
The sound production is easy, more coordinated and less damaging to the vocal folds.
Therefore, semi-occluded vocal tract exercises are a great choice for people with strained
voices.
I made a lot of videos with different types of SOVT exercises so you can check my channel
but here is one video with three SOVT exercises that do not require any tools.
If you are dealing with chronic vocal tension, I made a video, in which I walk you through
7 steps that lead to a strong voice without tension.
If you want to know what voice, body and mind considerations you need to take to truly free
your voice, click the link in the description below this video.
And if you found this video helpful, click the like button and share it with your friends.
Check out my other videos right here below.
See you soon.
Bye.