Hoarseness from Teaching is NOT Normal, Impact of Vocal Hygiene Training, and New Years PYV (WATER)!

The Week of Jan 3rd BLOG: 

TUESDAY TOSS UP: Hoarseness from Teaching is NOT Normal

In a survey of 237 primary school teachers, 1/3 of the teachers sought professional help for voice problems, less than 1/2 of the teachers were aware of voice therapy or that a doctor could help, and 30% BELIEVED THAT HOARSENESS FROM TEACHING WAS NORMAL (DaCosta et al., 2012).

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Newsflash my voice friends, fellow occupational voice users, and fellow fitness instructors too: HOARSENESS IS NEVER NORMAL. And neither is vocal fatigue after your class(es) or after a long day or even after a long week. Dysphonia (hoarseness) is any impairment or change in voice quality that affects the ability to speak or sing and results in an interruption in the vocal fold’s ability to vibrate normally during exhalation. The voice can involuntarily sound BREATHY, RASPY, STRAINED, ROUGH, or LOWER/HIGHER in PITCH. Any of these factors can significantly impact your life if you rely on your VOICE to COMMUNICATE (this.is.ALL.OF.US.) and especially if you are an OCCUPATIONAL VOICE USER (you use your VOICE for your JOB). OCCUPATIONAL VOICE USERS PUT HIGHER DEMANDS ON THEIR VOICES and THEREFORE ARE AT HIGHER RISK OF VOCAL INJURY THAN OTHERS.

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DYSPHONIA may cause you (as an occupational voice user) to reduce voice use and therefore reduce the IMPACT you desire to make on others. The QUALITY of your voice and its CLARITY may also be impaired—this also reduces the impact you might have on others and likely frustrates you because the communicative effectiveness is less than you intend. Changes in voice may cause you to miss work resulting in loss of money &/or may even lead you to give up on your passion/dream and change occupations. And WHY even let this be a possibility?! YOU WERE BORN FOR THIS. YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON. PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE to prevent dysphonia. RECOGNIZE that hoarseness is NEVER NORMAL & take steps to prevent its occurrence by being proactive.

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LISTEN TO YOUR BODY—when you are sore, you STRETCH. When you are tired or sick, you REST. When you feel sad or “stuck”, maybe you realize you NEED TO MOVE (#movementismedicine). When/IF you are “hoarse”, you MUST also LISTEN TO YOUR VOICE. Is it “telling you” vocal hygiene, vocal use patterns, &/or vocal demands may be sub-optimal? There are MANY ways to HEAL, retrain, re-coordinate, & rebalance your VOICE if you notice a change in its FEEL (strain, effort) or SOUND (roughness, strain, etc.). LISTEN and ACT. OR maaaaybe don’t even let it get to the point of dysphonia and instead EDUCATE yourself on the monumental importance of vocal health/wellness, vocal efficiency, & applicable vocal dynamics. EDUCATION IS POWER. PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE and LIVE the life you want to live, creating a lasting IMPACT on others & using your BEAUTIFUL VOCAL INSTRUMENT to do it!

HUMP DAY HEALTH:

New Research on The Impact of Vocal Hygiene Training on Teachers' Willingness to Change Vocal Behaviors...

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As noted during yesterday’s #tuesdaytossup, there is a high incidence of dysphonia reported in teachers (with at least 30% believing hoarseness from teaching was NORMAL), which has been shown to indicate challenges in the teacher’s ability to instruct as well as the students’ ability to comprehend. I strongly believe this applies to ALL occupational voice users—teachers, instructors of any kind, fitness professionals, singers, performers, public speakers, call center representatives, and the list goes on.

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Factors such as extra vocal load, high vocal demand, unmanaged vocal “budget”, stress, poor environmental acoustics, and general health issues may increase risk of acquiring a voice disorder that impacts the occupational voice user’s career. A 2019 study by Porcaro et al. sought to “determine whether education on vocal hygiene practices would impact teachers’ willingness to modify vocal behaviors”. A group of 26 teachers (preschool to high school) completed pre and post training surveys to determine demographics, daily voice use, and history of voice issues as well as assess participants’ likelihood to modify their behaviors and incorporate vocal hygiene practices into their daily lives. Between the two surveys, all teachers received a one hour training on vocal hygiene practices/recommendations which included basic information regarding the anatomy and physiology of the voice, healthy and unhealthy vocal behaviors and the impact of phonotraumatic behaviors, and the positive effects of vocal hygiene techniques.

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The results of this study demonstrate that the impact of vocal hygiene training on teachers’ willingness to incorporate vocally hygienic behaviors WAS STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT. “Increases in study participant perceived desire to engage in vocal hygiene behaviors by virtue of vocal hygiene training was manifested in nearly 90% of the targeted vocal hygiene behaviors”. Teachers reporting class sizes of larger than 21 and older teachers with more teaching experience were more likely (than those younger in age or with smaller class sizes) to report willingness to change (and use vocally-hygienic behaviors). The behaviors that showed a pretraining to post-training willingness to change included: “not whispering”, “taking voice naps”, limiting voice use when experiencing allergy symptoms, seeing an otolaryngologist, and “using nonvocal signals to gain students’ attention”.

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Therefore, this study does show that teachers appear to benefit from receiving education on vocal hygiene and voice use techniques and do show willingness to incorporate these techniques into their repertoires. In general, the findings also display the importance of vocal hygiene training as a strategy component to prevent or treat voice disorders in teachers (…and fitness instructors, & public speakers, & broadcasters, & call center representatives, etc.).

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If (ALL) occupational voice users are targeted with vocal hygiene training before they develop vocal challenges, perhaps voice disorders in this population could be reduced or avoided. 

PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE!  

WATER WATER WATERRRRRRRR

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It’s PRIORITIZE YOUR VOICE Friday!!!! 
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How are YOU prioritizing your voice?!
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Oldie but goodie way to do it... I alwaaaaays prioritize HYDRATION (all four ways!.. stay tuned for more info if you haven’t read about hydration yet on the VOXFIT®️ blog... it’s not just about drinking water!)... BUT I have consistently prioritized systematic hydration via intake of measured amounts of water for at least 15 years!  When I was being first trained in teaching indoor cycling they mentioned something about trying to get at least 3L of water in per day… And for some reason it’s stuck in my mind. Since then I’ve learned a ton about research, hydration, voice, and fitness…buuuuut I have definitely kept CONSISTENT with prioritizing WATER.
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I have evolved to the mindset of the ideal goal being about half of your body weight in ounces of water daily… And I’ve also heard and appreciate the phrases of “pee clear, speak with no fear” as well as “pee pale sing wet”. I NEVER go anywhere without at least a 1L water bottle… I choose glass bottles because it reduces plastic...and I like big bottles because I have to fill them up less times and I’m very aware of how many ounces they hold. To be honest, when I lived in the southeast I usually drank about 5L of water per day… But here in Arizona I normally drink about 7L. I know I’ve mentioned the research that hydrated vocal folds vibrate with less effort and more efficiency, and water in general is SO good for your body for so many different reasons. I also speak A LOT all day at the clinic, teach fitness classes after work, sing, live in a dry environment, and enjoy lattes. ;)  I also just FEEL so much better when I prioritize water and now it is just a part of who I am.
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Do you keep track of your daily water intake? Do you have a goal?

#prioritizeyourvoice and get drinking (water).
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PS don’t forget every Friday is Prioritize Your Voice Friday and I encourage you to post on your story how you’re prioritizing your voice!… Tag me @voxfit_ and I’ll share... let’s start a vocal wellness movement and #inspireothers to prioritize their VOICE!!!

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