Phlegm is the Enemy!
Tips to keep voicing with cough, cold, allergies, and other icky things.
You’re a professional voice user, and your voice is filled with crud. You’re stuffy and your throat feels thick and phlegmy. You have to track a piece, or give a speech, or sing for an audition or present to your team. How do you care for your voice AND do your job? Here are my top 5 recommendations:
5. Drink tea
4. Hydrate
Hydrating thins mucus in your body. The thinner the mucus, the less stuffy and stopped up you’ll be. To thin out your body’s mucus:
3. Gargle
2. Focus your resonance
Mask resonance and continuing consonants to keep the voice focused in the front of the face and not in the back of the throat. It’s easy to let vocal technique get lazy when we’re sick – it’s more important now than ever! This helps you sound more like your usual self, and works around that “sick voice” sound.
1. Neti pot/ Saline spray
This is my personal favorite. Because mucus is the enemy(!), and it’s the post-nasal drip that causes your sore throat and many vocal challenges, stop it at the start. Wash it out of your nose with a neti pot or saline spray. Blow your nose like crazy. Get that mucous out of your body so it can’t trouble your voice!
NOTE: If you use a neti pot, please be sure to use distilled or saline water, and keep your pot clean. See your doctor if you have any concerns about sinus infections.
UPDATE 04/14/2024: My allergist just recommended Astepro a non-steroid, anti-histimine nasal spray. You can get it over the counter, and it's helping me in the worst of spring pollen. If you find a nasal spray like Flonase or Astepro to be drying to your delicate nasal tissues, NeilMed makes a nasal gel to moisturize.
Hope these are helpful to you in cold and allergy seasons!
What works best for you? Post a comment here, or tweet @jessActs
5. Drink tea
- Teas with ingredients that list Slippery Elm Bark are especially soothing to the throat. They create a nice, slippery coating that let’s your voice slide out easily. Try drinking warm liquids, not hot or cold; they open and relax you, without creating a backlash response to the extreme temperature. Many folks are strong proponents of honey, especially Manuka honey for various reasons. Every body is different, so pay attention to yours!
4. Hydrate
Hydrating thins mucus in your body. The thinner the mucus, the less stuffy and stopped up you’ll be. To thin out your body’s mucus:
- Water is life – your mother was right! Drink more fluids. And then drink more.
- Limit caffeine and alcohol – both of these dehydrate.
- The Dairy Controversy – If you read the mouth noise blog, you already know that some studies have shown that dairy does not create mucus, but other studies maintain that dairy does thicken the mucus in your body. Pay attention to your body and mouth after eating those foods – it may not have any effect on you, but it’s worth the experiment.
- Be careful with medicines that dehydrate (antihistimines, decongestants, etc), acidic foods like lemon, and medicinal lozenges. Again, every body is different – notice how yours reacts.
3. Gargle
- Gargle with a saline solution – dissolve salt in warm water and gargle. You can do this fairly often!
- If you are losing voice, add a little hydrogen peroxide to the mix. DO NOT SWALLOW. Use about a teaspoon per Cup.
2. Focus your resonance
Mask resonance and continuing consonants to keep the voice focused in the front of the face and not in the back of the throat. It’s easy to let vocal technique get lazy when we’re sick – it’s more important now than ever! This helps you sound more like your usual self, and works around that “sick voice” sound.
1. Neti pot/ Saline spray
This is my personal favorite. Because mucus is the enemy(!), and it’s the post-nasal drip that causes your sore throat and many vocal challenges, stop it at the start. Wash it out of your nose with a neti pot or saline spray. Blow your nose like crazy. Get that mucous out of your body so it can’t trouble your voice!
NOTE: If you use a neti pot, please be sure to use distilled or saline water, and keep your pot clean. See your doctor if you have any concerns about sinus infections.
UPDATE 04/14/2024: My allergist just recommended Astepro a non-steroid, anti-histimine nasal spray. You can get it over the counter, and it's helping me in the worst of spring pollen. If you find a nasal spray like Flonase or Astepro to be drying to your delicate nasal tissues, NeilMed makes a nasal gel to moisturize.
Hope these are helpful to you in cold and allergy seasons!
What works best for you? Post a comment here, or tweet @jessActs
