A Voice Apart

Vocal Strain means that the voice was misused or abused in more ways then one. Sometimes, just regular people end up abusing their voices without being aware of doing so. Some of them are speaking a lot and speaking very forcefully; almost screaming instead of speaking. They do get tired by the end of the day, but in the morning, they start all over again. Also, if their work requires them to speak on the phone all day, or to teach classes/courses, that’s where voice/vocal strain may occur; (and sometimes, to the point when they may lose their voice completely). Sometimes, the vocal strain could produce growths (like nodules or polyps) on the vocal cords. That’s where the “alarm should go off”, so to speak. Now we are talking about the growth on the vocal cords which, by itself, is a very serious matter. Either surgically, or preferably non-surgically, any growth has to be eliminated. We know of cases where such growth(s) had been left untreated for some...

If you are suffering from a complete voice loss , then, unfortunately, we will not be able to help. In order to recover the voice, we need some kind of a sound production. I was amazed when one person, after quite intensive correspondence with me via e-mails, finally called me and could not produce anything but a whisper. When I asked him what he was diagnosed with, he, to my surprise, responded with whispers that the Doctors could not find anything wrong with him. I was literally shocked with that reply. But, unfortunately, could not offer him any viable help, as no sound was present at all. Then, in my office, another man unexpectedly walked in, who actually had the sound, but there was nothing but “mooing”, so to speak. Apparently, he recently undergone a cancer of thyroid operation and he ended up with both vocal cords paralysed . Naturally, I told him the truth that vocal paralysis on both vocal cords is non treatable.  Believe it or not, he looked at me with absolute surprise...

Let’s find out… Perhaps one day you woke up and felt that your throat is unusually dry and even somewhat scratchy. You probably did not think much about it, as it had happened before. So you started clearing your throat, trying to cough it out, but this time it was much harder to bring it to the normal state. You have tried again and again and instead of it getting better, it was getting worse. Now, probably there was a time for concern. At first, you thought that maybe you caught a cold or a virus, but you overall felt alright and not sick at all. Then you started to analyze your social behaviour and your conduct at work, trying to remember if anybody there was sick and had a virus or a cold. After that, another thought occurred in your mind and you started thinking... “Probably, I speak too much and too loud on an everyday basis, I speak on the phone all day and then go to a loud club or to my band practice…” Suddenly, you realize that you are overworking your voic...