To your health

Due to the environment in which we work, almost no one stays healthy for an entire semester. The onslaught of cold and flu season is exacerbated by the stressful academic schedule we maintain and the seemingly constant exposure to sick classmates and co-workers. This can be further compounded by the lifestyle many college students choose that is not always conducive to optimal health.

One of the best ways to avoid getting sick, of course, is to constantly work toward overall good health. (Consult a doctor for the best advise. A real doctor, I mean.)

-Maintain a balanced diet
-Exercise regularly
-Make a full night’s sleep a priority
-Drink plenty of water
-De-stress your life (to the degree that you can)
-Wash your hands often

But, when you do get sick, as we all eventually do, there are some additional things we can do to minimize the impact on our voices.

-Make sleep an even bigger priority (this is one of the best ways to allow your body to heal itself)
-Continue drinking a lot of water and making healthy food choices
-Prioritize your voice use when sick. Don’t oversing or speak too much if your voice is weakened due to illness.
-Try to keep all coughing to a minimum. Knowing how hard that is on the voice, the less coughing you can do, the quicker the vocal recovery.
-Know the side effects of the medications you may be taking. Most decongestants, for instance, dry out the voice. This doesn’t mean you can’t take them but it should mean you minimize your voice use and increase water intake while using these medications. You can go to ncvs.org and click the “check your meds” logo to see the impact that all kinds of medications may have on the voice.

AND if you are sick please do all you can to keep your germs from spreading to others.

-Keep tissues on hand
-Cough and sneeze into a tissue or at least into your sleeve
-Wash your hands often
-Know when to just stay home

According to Dr. Wendy LeBorgne’s chapter “Vocal Health and the Music Theater Vocal Athlete” in “So You Want to Sing Music Theater: A Guide for Professionals,” a 2013 study supports use of a neti pot to clear sinuses or for allergy relief. She also says that gargling water or salt water (without too much salt) can help in treating or preventing upper respiratory infections.

Many people find tea with honey to be soothing to a sore throat. Or course, this will not (or should not) reach the vocal folds but it can make the tissue of the mouth and throat feel nice. Just make sure that it is herbal tea since caffeinated tea (any caffeinated beverage, really) will have a drying effect on the voice.

No one can avoid illness completely. Unfortunately, the time we are busiest and the most stressed out (tech week, juries, finals) we tend to have compromised immune systems and are more susceptible to getting sick. In that case, take care of yourself even more and be protective of your voice. Any way that you can minimize harm to your voice while sick will hopefully result in being back to full vocal strength even sooner.

Buena salud. To your health.

Now go practice.