The voice is the sound produced by humans or animals when air is expelled through the larynx and causes the vocal cords to vibrate. There are many problems associated with the misuse of the voice, as well as risk factors that negatively affect this basic instrument of communication. Tomorrow, April 13, is the World Day of the voice and that is why in today’s blog entry we are going to talk about the risk factor’s that harm the voice.
Just because. The voice allows us to communicate, but it is also the work tool of teaching professionals, speakers and singers, and of traditional media communicators such as television and radio, and also of the most current ones, such as Instagram, Tick Tock or Twich . According to Spanish Society of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery (SEORL-CCC), Early Childhood and Primary Education teachers are the professionals who suffer the most voice diseases. Specifically, they state in a recent study that dysphonia affects 75% of teachers at some point in their lives.
With regard to the rest of the population, this same entity assures that one in 13 people suffers from voice disorders, but most are not adequately treated. Today we want to focus on the risk factors associated with those injuries that affect our vocal cords.
What is not good for the voice
The SEORL-CCC recommends the following Decalogue of tips to take care of the voice, which we extract in this blog post but which you can read in full in this link:
- Avoid talking in noisy environments. Try not to speak over loud ambient noise because vocal abuse occurs. It is better to speak close and in front of the interlocutor, articulate more than usual and speak clearly and slowly to avoid repeating.
- Give up smoking. Tobacco is an irritating factor for the larynx and predisposes to the appearance of benign lesions such as edema or polyps. In addition, it is the main cause of laryngeal cancer.
- Do not shout or speak shouting since it is a behavior of vocal effort. In general, you should rest your voice by doing periods of 15-20 minutes of silence two or three times a day, limit the use of the telephone, among other measures. In general, you should not talk for more than 4 hours at a time or sing for more than 2 hours.
- Vocalize and breathe well to avoid forcing and raising the voice, especially in professions where the use of the voice is continuous, such as teachers.
- hydrate properly: drink around two liters of water daily so that the mucosa that covers the vocal cords is well hydrated.
- Rest and sleep Correctly. Body fatigue is reflected in the voice.
- Do not use residual lung air when talking. You should never speak with the final rest of your breath and feel a choking sensation (when the veins in your neck stand out when you speak).
- Avoid irritating factors such as smoke and dusty areasas well as very dry environments with a lot of heating or air conditioning. You have to open and ventilate the rooms to renew the air.
- don’t clear your throat. It is a behavior of traumatic effort for the vocal cords, a strong and violent movement. Some alternatives to avoid it may be: swallowing saliva, drinking small sips of water, making a deaf cough (without joining the vocal cords).
- Accomplish regular voice checkswith the otorhinolaryngologist. And consult whenever a dysphonia lasts more than 15 days.
Most of us have suffered isolated episodes of hoarseness at some point, caused by laryngitis or a common cold. However, there are situations that may be indicative of pathologies that should be treated and that require the intervention of a specialist.
When to go to the doctor for a voice problem
- If the episodes of hoarseness recur periodically
- If the hoarseness lasts more than four days
- If we do not find an apparent cause
Program for the treatment and prevention of functional dysphonia
Next, we leave you an exercise program to take care of the vocal cords, reduce the impact of an injury or prevent its appearance in this link. The professionals from the Ribera health group, responsible for recording these videos, recommend practicing each of them twice a day for five days. At the end of the sessions with each video, you will move on to the next one. In total, the Ribera group’s online dysphonia treatment program has five videos with different exercises.
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