Vocal health care

Take good care of your voice

por: Tânia Bello

The voice is a very powerful tool for human communication, that is why we need to take good care of it.

Everyone can be vigilant in their daily lives and build healthy habits that help maintain their vocal health, thus avoiding disorders such as dysphonia (hoarseness) and aphonia (loss of voice).

Professionals who use their voice as a working tool should be even more careful. Teachers, singers and announcers are more likely to develop problems, such as nodules, which occur due to frequent and inappropriate use of the vocal folds.

Under normal conditions, voice production takes place as follows: the air expelled from the lungs passes through the two vocal folds located in the larynx. This airflow brings the folds closer together, causing them to vibrate and produce sound. The process should happen naturally and effortlessly, which is often not the case and can lead to changes in the voice.

A healthy voice is also the result of healthy mucous membranes. Our folds are muscles covered by a delicate mucosa, which can be affected by factors such as inflammation of the respiratory tract, smoking and the use of alcoholic beverages. As a result of this aggression, mucus and throat clearing usually appear, which further impair voice production.

Therefore, if you want to have a healthy voice, it's important to reduce and preferably eliminate alcohol and smoking, which will have repercussions on other aspects of your health. Did you know that smoking is the second leading cause of laryngeal cancer in Brazil?

Creating healthy habits is a choice. It's always important to remember that to create a habit you need to practice it often, until the behavior becomes natural and spontaneous.

Here are some tips you can incorporate into your daily life. Your voice will thank you and you'll hear the difference...

Drink plenty of fluids, the equivalent of 8 glasses of water a day, at room temperature;

If the humidity is very low, or if you use air conditioning frequently, increase your hydration;

Avoid coughing and sniffling, as the vocal folds will be even more damaged, prefer to swallow saliva as a way of relieving the “itch” and always see a specialist for a proper diagnosis of coughs and hoarseness;

Don't speak in noisy environments, the tendency is to raise the volume at the cost of strain on the vocal folds.

Safeguard your voice in case of allergies, colds, flu and also after excessive use, which should be avoided. Remember that there are other communicative resources; the voice, although very important, is not the only way to express yourself.

Publicado também em :

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