I have worked with countless professional voice users like singers, musicians, teachers, customer service representatives, and more in my decade-long career as a voice focused speech language pathologist. I often get their feedback on how they wish someone had told them about how to take care of their voice before they needed to come see me [a voice specialist]. Honestly, I, too, wish that someone had shared these invaluable information with them to help them prevent vocal injuries before they started having difficulties using their extremely precious personal instrument, their voice box. So, whenever I get the chance, I share what I know in voice therapy from my extensive education, self-studies, and countless direct patient/client contact hours to help people take care of their one and only voice box.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" they say. Here are some simple voice care ideas you can include in your daily life to prevent voice problems.
1. Hydration. I just can't stress enough about how crucial it is for people to drink enough water to take care of their voice. When your voice is hydrated, you will likely notice less thick mucus which also means less needs to clear your throat. The tissue in our voice box is just like our skin outside, it needs to be lubricated to prevent it from getting hurt. Traditionally, 64oz of water is recommended, but you also want to consider the weather, your physical condition, and so on to increase your water intake.
If it's dryer or hotter, increase your water intake.
If you are exercising, drink more water. It will likely make your body and throat happy.
If you don't enjoy water, consider flavoring your water w/ fresh fruits or veggies like strawberries or cucumbers.
If you drink caffeinated or alcoholic beverages, drink extra water to keep your body (incl. your voice) hydrated and happy.
Using a humidifier, hot-water vaporizer, nebulizer, and inhaling steam in the shower (or use a facial steamer) are other nice ways to treat your precious voice box with a nice spa.
2. You may not have noticed, but you might be throat clearing more often than you know. Throat clearing happens when our vocal folds/vocal cords come together forcefully and can cause damage to our vocal folds. It does not usually "cure" the "something is stuck in my throat" sensation, and it usually resulted in a vicious cycle - throat clear more. "BUT I just need to get that "gunk" out!" you might think. And I believe you when you feel something is there and it can be very bother some. The good news is, there are better ways to combat that sensation and hopefully help you reduce that feeling soon. Here are a few things I'd like you to try when the feeling of needing to clear your throat arises:
Take a sip of water
Swallow hard if you don't have access to some delicious water
Tuck your chin and swallow hard
3. Choose your voice-friendly environment. When you are in an environment that is not favorable to your voice, you will likely start using your voice the way you don't typically do, like yelling or shouting to communicate with others. This is especially difficult when you want to socialize while still keeping your voice conscious life style. Some of my recommendations: use a head phone when talking on the phone in the car, use a microphone if you are presenting in a group or in a large room, find a quieter environment when you plan on having some quality time to talk to your friends, taking breaks during your conversation(s) with people, avoid whispering, or protect your hearing so you don't have to speak louder than you need to. Depends on the individual's life style and needs in their daily activities, I (as a speech language therapy voice specialist) would collaborate with my clients/patients to find ways to use their voice more safely.
4. Warm up and cool down your voice [voice muscles], just like you would before a good exercise. There are various vocal exercises your speech language therapy voice specialist may work on with you to warm up and cool down your voice box. I always start with muscle relaxation exercises and breathing exercises to make sure the muscles are relax and happy. We want to make sure our body (including our voice box) is not over engaged to prevent (more) damage to our voice. You might have heard of semi occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVT), which are exercises that can help warm up and cool down exercises. One of which includes straw phonation and you can see a demonstration video of such exercise by the creator, Dr. Tizte, here. You can also try singing pitch glides using "oooop" from low to high pitch and "boom" from high to low pitch. Yawning can help release the tension in your throat as well. Lip and tongue trills in pitch glides (from low to high and high to low pitch) are also great exercises to get your voice box ready for more voice use. Working with a speech language therapist who specializes in voice like me in private speech language therapy practice or through your insurance can be supportive to create a individualized program to support you in your voice use journey.
5. Rest, rest, rest. Rest your voice when you can. You can try using gestures, clapping, facial expressions, writing, texting, or signs to get people's attention when appropriate. Our one and only precious instrument (voice box) will thank you as it needs our attention just as everywhere else in our body. Take care of your voice because it is also a big part of our identity and we want you to have your professional tool (your voice) to perform the important tasks in your professions. Similarily, we want you to have your personal your tool (your voice) to stay in touch with your love ones, and more!
I also always recommend that people start journaling about how their voice feels to help them find the triggers of voice problems or discomfort in the throat including when they need to clear their throat. For example, "my voice is more hoarse in the morning," "after I talk on the phone for 30 min or so," "after I drink caffeinated drinks," "when it's windy outside," "when I eat spicy or friend/greasy foods," or even "when I have more stress." By journaling the details of how one's voice is being used daily, it will likely show us a pattern and and we address the triggers or causes directly. The information shared with us [speech language pathology voice specialists] can be extremely crucial in how we tailor our treatment plans for the people all the amazing individuals we work with.
I hope these are some helpful tips to support you in your voice use journey. Please do reach out to an otolaryngologist or a voice specialist/speech language pathologist if you are experiencing voice problems as soon as possible to rule out any possible voice disorders or get the help you very much deserve. Your voice will thank you! As I mentioned before, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
If you are curious about gender affirming voice training, check out our other blog on the subject.
We wish you only better voice days ahead! The Chat Room Therapy - Where Voice is Found.
Learn more about speech-language-voice-cognitive-swallow therapy or what we do as speech language pathologists, and our in home and virtual private speech therapy settings:
call/text us at 818.823.8022 or email us at hello@thechatroomtherapy.com.
We provide virtual speech therapy visits/telehealth visits in California, and in home services in Montrose, La Crescenta, La Canada, and Pasadena, CA areas.
We also provide speech therapy in Mandarin Chinese. 中文/國語語言治療
Vicki Chia Hui Lin, M.S., CCC-SLP
Founder, The Chat Room Therapy
Vicki is a California licensed and American Speech Language and Hearing Association certified speech language pathologist. She has extensive experience with both adults and children, with particular specialties in gender affirming voice therapy, adult voice disorders, post stroke or head and neck cancer related voice, communication, cognitive, and swallow difficulties.
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Great and helpful tips for taking care of and improving your voice!
Very helpful and informative!
helpful tips. I enjoyed working with you
This is great information! Thanks for sharing!