For most singers, they have the tendency to rely on the internet to find a remedy or ideas that can help them cure their voice problems fast. Or they go to a friend, who strobly believe that they have found the right beverage or mixed drink that can help them with their vocal needs. Whether it’s a sore throat before a big show, having a head cold, or having that little tickle in the back of your throat that won’t go away, there always seems to be something out in the world that can help singers and performers with vocal problems.
With endless ideas of vocal cures and new innovations, we can never truly tell what the perfect solution to heal our voices is. As professional singers, we like to put a great deal of strain on our voices, singing to much, giving the best performance of your life, etc. It’s imperative to take care of the vocal cords and avoid as much damage as possible. To keep your voice sounding its best, there are certain drinks that you should avoid. Take for example alcohol. Unfortunately, the more we drink, the more the alcoholic drinks can cause serious vocal damage to us over a lifetime.
The damage doesn’t occur instantly, but over time, range and tone are adversely affected by alcohol. In fact, according to my research, there are a number of factors that can hurt your vocal cords. The major drinks include milk, soda, black and green leaf teas, ice cubes, and especially liquids that are too hot or too cold. For my research paper, I will be discussing certain beverages and the effects they leave on a singer’s vocal chords and throat. There is never a perfect liquid, and the ones that will be talked about, all produce some type of aftermath that can affect the vocal chords.
These drinks include: soft drinks, milk, green and black teas, coffee, and beer. Most of these beverages either can dry out or irritate the vocal cords, or they increase the production of mucus. Keep in mind that very hot or very cold beverages can also negatively affect the sound and range of the voice. In this paper, there will also be information that will be covered that will involve the proper ways of keeping your voice healthy and the techniques that one can use to stay healthy.
I hope that by the end, the information given will hopefully help other fellow singers and teach them about what not to drink, or help cut back, and the alternatives that can lead one to a safe and healthy recovery. As I previously stated, certain drinks and beverages can do damage to a singers throat, but what do they actually damage? We can all say that it is like sandpaper and dry your throat out and make it scratchy and painful, but that’s not always the case. In this study, I have found out that in our throat, we have this layer of what is called mucosa, creating a coat to protect us.
Mucosa is made up of mucus that prevents pathogens, germs, bacteria and dirt from entering the body and also prevents bodily tissue from losing moisture. Within the layer of mucosa, are tiny little mucous membranes that are very essential and rather delicate; because what these membranes can do, is they are able to absorb a number of substances and toxins that we swallow or take in, but they can only take certain amounts in due to the membranes vulnerability regarding pain.
If the lining is torn or broken, mucus is incapable of performing its roles of preventing infection and retaining tissue moisture levels, thus breaking the wall that is protecting the throat and causing dryness, irritation and leading to strep and other problems associated to singers. With this being said, a singer must be very aware regarding the different drinks that they consume. One of the leading causes of throat issues for singers and musicians is the soft drink (soda). Soft Drinks, what most people call soda or pop, are drinks that typically contain ingredients such as carbonated water, sweetener and natural or artificial flavoring.
The sweetener may be sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, sugar substitutes, or some combination of these. Soft drinks may also contain caffeine, food colorings, preservatives and other ingredients. When soft drinks are consumed, the vocal folds are one of the first to be targeted. The vocal folds require moisture to work efficiently and though caffeine comes in the form of a liquid, it acts as a drying agent. In fact, caffeine pulls water out of your system and depletes the vocal folds of needed lubrication, leading ones voice to get dryer faster.
It also shown that with the amounts of sugar mixed into a soft drink, it’s like a drug that leads a person to want more after they have completed the first drink they had, which then causes the throat, vocal folds, and other vital areas like the soft pallet and the uvula to dry out and prune. With the case of having dry vocal chords, it can tend to tighten which temporarily hinders voice range and endurance. So that feeling you get when you go to sleep after drinking two or three cans of carbonated soda, the body is taking in more CO2, not leaving and time for the vocal tract to gain the moisture and saliva it needs to re-lubricate.
The more caffeine you drink, the worse the effect on your voice. Think about that the next time you want a soda the night before a big show. Some drinks that singers should ignore entirely are drinks like 5 Hour Energy, Rockstar, Monster, and Redbull due to the amount of sugar in there mixtures. Pepsi and Coca-Cola products are fine, as long as you don’t drink more than one a day. However, you must not drink these soft drinks before and after your performance or practice because soft drinks have a sugar that will create phlegm in your throat and also it has caffeine that is bad for your voice.
If you want to drink soft drinks, you just have to drink a lot of warm water. The next drink to present is one that is more common than soda and alcohol, which is Milk. Milk, and a good majority of other dairy products, is the number one cause of phlegm build up in singers, and phlegm is every singer’s worst enemy because the more you drink milk, the more phlegm is built up and can increase the production of mucus which affects the sound of the voice. Milk contains lactic acid which produces more phlegm, and thus make you strain while singing.
Milk does not directly cause vocal chord damage. Milk can lead to excess mucus production though which can interfere with your ability to speak and sing as efficiently It sticks to the back of your throat and nasal cavity requiring you to clear your throat when you are singing. Sometimes phlegm can cause your voice to sound as if it is cracking; which is actually your air breaking through the phlegm at the back of your throat. The high fat content in dairy products thickens the mucous that is already present in a person’s airway, making it seem like there is more phlegm to deal with.
However, even though it can make a singer feel groggier, it cannot damage your vocal cords unless you drink it cold. Luckily, this thickening sensation can be diminished simply by eating dairy products that have a lower fat content. Limit dairy products and milk, especially before a performance. If you must drink milk, follow up with plenty of water to keep your throat clear. In the same fashion, tea and coffee have a drying effect and reduces the lubrication around your vocal folds making you more susceptible to developing things like a sore throat (at best) or a vocal node (at worst).
Alcohol. Wine is generally packed with preservatives which dry out your throat. Beer (or anything carbonated for that matter) causes bloating and gas and you don’t want either when you’re up on stage singing into a mic. It also causes constriction in the blood vessels in vocal tissue, causing a reduction in vocal control. Since most alcohol is kept in cold temperature levels, alcohol, also milk and soda, can shock our vocal cords and cause our throats and our voices to contract and stiffen.
This is not good for singing because we need our vocal cords and throats to be warmed up and flexible in order to be able to hit the various pitches that we sing and speak! With this in mind, Coffee/ Tea For a person who drinks coffee or tea regularly, 8 ounces of coffee/tea will provide approximately the same amount of hydration as 8 ounces of water. Caffeine is still a diuretic, which means that a person will lose water more quickly than if they were drinking something else. Coffee can dry out the throat, as well as tighten the muscles and restrict vocal range.
Tea. Hot green or black tea contains caffeine and tannins that can cause dehydration to your vocal chords, leading to your vocal nodes or a sore throat. Although green tea has many health benefits, excessive amounts can negatively impact your singing voice. i. II. Healthy Alternatives and Innovations that can help keep your voice healthy. III. Different caffeinated and energy drinks. The numbers on the horizontal axis represent the milligrams of caffeine in an 8 oz serving. Try to limit yourself to no more than 150 mg/day