With flu season quickly descending upon us, singers have the additional worry of protecting their voice. The flu is one of the worst illnesses for the voice because it dehydrates and sometimes coats the throat in acid - gross. Hydration is a key factor in maintaining a healthy voice, while acid plays only a minor role in affecting vocal health.
Specialists recommend six to eight glasses of water, excluding coffee, in order to keep the vocal folds and larynx hydrated. In fact, coffee can quickly dehydrate your body. Using a humidifier and avoiding medications that dry out your throat are other ways to stay hydrated. During the winter, a humidifier is especially important to use as it gets colder and dryer.
Using your voice wisely is another part of vocal care. I don't mean that every singer should always be on vocal rest but a singer needs to take it easy on their voice when they are sick or have a hoarse voice. Vocal rest is mainly used for when the voice is already strained and needs to be rested. Whispering and yelling should also be avoided as a singer because both of those activities strain the voice.
Over singing is the single most detrimental thing that you can do to your voice because it strains the vocal folds, which will eventually lead to permanent damage. This damage can not only affect they way you sing, but may also affect your everyday talking voice. It also produces an inferior quality of sound due to the unnecessary pressure that is applied; many people who oversing have terrible tone quality and sound flat. One quick way to check if you are oversinging is to stand in front of a mirror while singing and check if you can see the veins in your neck or tension in general.
You may ask how to tell if your singing is making your voice unhealthy. Some symptoms your voice is unhealthy are: a raspy, hoarse, deeper, raw, achy, or strained voice. These symptoms should be shared with a doctor, specifically an otolaryngologist; they are the doctors that specialize in throats. If you are referred to a speech-language pathologist at the doctor's office, the speech-language pathologist will help you use your voice effectively and lessen your chances of damaging your voice.
Hopefully, even those that do not sing with be able to use their voices effectively. So the next time you think about yelling across the room to your friend, you will know that it strains your voice. A little bit of walking is much less disastrous than losing your voice. Although I am being dramatic, I do hope that you find this information helpful, even if you do not sing because you still need to think about your health. It is very similar to staying in shape despite not being a part of a sport; it's still important to do for your health.