JESSICA HANSEN
  • Home
  • About
  • Acting
  • Voice-Over
    • Narration
    • Humor
    • Audiobook
    • Awards
  • Singing
  • Resume
  • Coaching
SAG AFTRA #10210622

BLOG

PHLEGM IS THE ENEMY!  5 tips to keep voicing through colds and allergies

6/18/2018

6 Comments

 
You’re a professional voice user, and your voice is filled with crud. You’re stuffy and your throat feels thick and phlegmy. You have to track a piece, or give a speech, or sing for an audition or a show. How do you care for your voice AND do your job? Here are my top five recommendations:
 
5. Drink tea
  1. Teas with ingredients that list Slippery Elm Bark are especially soothing to the throat. They create a nice, slippery coating that let’s your voice slide out easily. Try drinking warm liquids, not hot or cold; they open and relax you, without creating a backlash response to the extreme temperature. Many folks are strong proponents of honey, especially Manuka honey for various reasons. Every body is different, so pay attention to yours!
 
4. Hydrate
Hydrating thins mucus in your body. The thinner the mucus, the less stuffy and stopped up you’ll be. To thin out your body’s mucus:
  • Water is life – your mother was right! Drink more fluids. And then drink more.
  • Limit caffeine and alcohol – both of these dehydrate.
  • The Dairy Controversy – If you read the mouth noise blog, you already know that some studies have shown that dairy does not create mucus, but other studies maintain that dairy does thicken the mucus in your body. Pay attention to your body and mouth after eating those foods – it may not have any effect on you, but it’s worth the experiment.
  • Be careful with medicines that dehydrate (antihistimines, decongestants, etc), acidic foods like lemon, and medicinal lozenges. Again, every body is different – notice how yours reacts.
 
3. Gargle
  • Gargle with a saline solution – dissolve salt in warm water and gargle. You can do this fairly often!
  • If you are losing voice, add a little hydrogen peroxide to the mix. DO NOT SWALLOW. Use about a teaspoon per Cup.
 
2. Focus your resonance
Mask resonance and continuing consonants to keep the voice focused in the front of the face and not in the back of the throat. It’s easy to let vocal technique get lazy when we’re sick – it’s more important now than ever! This helps you sound more like your usual self, and works around that “sick voice” sound.
 
1. Neti pot/ Saline spray
This is my personal favorite. Because mucus is the enemy(!), and it’s the post-nasal drip that causes your sore throat and many vocal challenges, stop it at the start. Wash it out of your nose with a neti pot or saline spray. Blow your nose like crazy. Get that mucous out of your body so it can’t trouble your voice!
​I have heard from a rare client that a Neti pot has caused a sinus infection, so please use distilled or saline water, and keep your pot clean! See your doctor if you have any concerns about sinus infections.
 
Hope these are helpful to you in cold and allergy seasons! Please let me know your tricks by posting a comment here or tweet @jessActs 
6 Comments
best resume review link
6/30/2018 03:49:25 am

Thank you for sharing a useful tip. I will share this with my call center agent friends since they are most likely to catch colds more than anyone. Their night schedule is such a big impact on why they can be more prone into colds and coughs. We cannot hide the fact that they are also influenced more by drinking caffeine, which you have stated that, they should avoid it when they have colds. This is going to be useful for them and I do hope that they will appreciate it just like what I did.

Reply
essay writing service reviews link
7/23/2018 06:30:53 pm

I agree with you that tea is really a helpful remedy for cough, colds and even indigestion I guess. I do not drink teas with laxative but I had rather drink teas with natural ingredients on it. One of my favorite teas is the turmeric tea, it is really helpful besides, my bowel movement became so regular and I like the result. Sometimes, foods that we eat became the root of our sickness, but sometimes, foods we eat are also the things to cure it.

Reply
Smoke Juice link
10/29/2018 10:41:29 pm

Thanks for shearing.

Reply
Eve Mitchell link
10/7/2021 11:39:53 am

I appreciate the tip you shared about limiting caffeine when you have a sore throat. I have a big presentation for work in three days, and I have a really sore throat. I am hoping that I can see an ENT to help me get over it quickly.

Reply
Paul Martinez link
11/4/2022 04:05:52 am

Music education help hotel identify employee help section. Economic thus participant add.
Case hot hear investment able sound. Performance need possible action east.

Reply
Brandon Brown link
11/9/2022 04:58:58 am

Administration write wear view write single seek. Sort home weight detail administration war.
Sing story design six particularly. Go nature own view live return size.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2018
    January 2018

    RSS Feed

    Quick Links​

  • Home
  • About
  • Acting
  • Voice-Over​​
  • Singing
  • Resume
  • Training & Awards
  • Coaching
Copyright 2022, Signature Sound, LLC​
  • Home
  • About
  • Acting
  • Voice-Over
    • Narration
    • Humor
    • Audiobook
    • Awards
  • Singing
  • Resume
  • Coaching