A Voice Apart

Get this: From Strep Throat - To Laryngitis - To Vocal Cord Paralysis... Isn’t that peculiar? More and more, in my practice (in over four decades), I have been hearing about the devastating vocal disorder - Vocal Paresis, also known as Vocal Paralysis. The interesting thing is that a lot of other vocal disorders are usually caused by speaking and/or singing in the wrong (and often aggressive) way. - Vocal Paresis, as well as, (for example) Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) , quite often have additional reasons for their occurrence. Interestingly enough, I hear a lot about some kind of a virus (or even a simple cold) that had produced vocal paresis affecting one or even both vocal cords. When a person is under a lot of stress, their immune system subsides which means that they become more susceptible to all kinds of infections, colds, and needless to say viruses. Some time ago, a client from Atlanta, Georgia, USA came with one paralyzed vocal cord, which occurred after he experienced a really s

Vocal cord paralysis, also known as the vocal cord paresis, is the inability of one or both vocal cords to move. It can greatly impact the daily life of the sufferer, including, job, social interactions and leisure time activities. The condition is caused by damage to nerves going to the vocal cords-the nerve impulses in the larynx are interrupted, resulting in the paralysis of the vocal cord muscles. Patients with vocal paralysis typically experience hoarseness, vocal fatigue, mild to a severe reduction in speech volume, a pain in the throat when speaking, and swallowing things down the wrong way and choking. Signs and symptoms of vocal cord paralysis include: • Changes to the voice • Hoarseness • Noisy Breathing • Changes to vocal pitch • Coughs that do not clear the throat properly • Voice volume may be affected Treatment for vocal cord paralysis The treatment for vocal cord paralysis depends on several factors, including what caused it, how severe the

Once, I had a request from a serious voice problem sufferer who was residing in the UK.  He was a throat cancer survivor; and with all of the chemotherapy and radiation therapy, he ended up having both vocal cords damaged. One of his vocal cords was paralyzed and the other one was simply non-functional. He approached me with all kinds of questions and when his question came around the price of my nonsurgical voice repair services and treatment sessions , he exclaimed: “Oh my God, it is too much!” When I asked him what he would do with the same amount of money if he would not end up paying for my services? He said: “I would go on vacation…” Then I asked him if he would enjoy that vacation, being afraid to open his mouth and constantly be conscious on how he would be received and perceived by other people? On that note, I’ve heard the tears in his voice. He had obviously gotten my drift… so to speak. After this emotional moment, our deal had been finalized; and shortly after,

Needless to say that lately, especially since the recession kicked in, people became even more stressed out than before opposed to when they had good jobs, decent money to live on, and reasonable family lives. I always said that the voice is the spirit and it does reflect the state of the persons’ being. When the persons’ livelihood is in jeopardy and his/her world falls to pieces, it is no wonder that their spirit will be very down and, respectively, their voice will start sounding much lower in tone, much more stressed, less announced and with much less clarity. In some cases, the voice gets so laid back that it begins to gradually fall onto the lower part of the throat; and thus begins to sound very dull and somewhat hoarse .  Then the person might experience what’s called acid reflux , as the voice is drawn so low, that it evidently meets gastric acid. The person will experience the burning on the back of the vocal cords and sometimes even difficulty of breathing m