0764 – How Meds Can Hurt Not Help Your Voice

 2023.02.03 – 0764 – How Meds Can Hurt Not Help Your Voice

Medications – Again, sticky-sweet, tongue colour-changing over-the-counter lozenges do not touch your vocal cords. Although they might have a placebo effect (you feel as though they are helping, and so your confidence returns), the ones with anaesthetic or numbing properties may actually be causing further damage, giving you a false sense that everything’s OK.

Instead, focus on the root cause of your vocal fatigue by practising with a vocal routine.

Other medications can affect your voice too:

·        Inhalers and steroid sprays

·        Antihistamines (such as hay fever remedies) can also dehydrate

·        Antibiotics

·        Antidepressants

·        Oral contraceptives

·        The menthol in some cold remedies may be an irritant

·        Decongestant meds for nose and throat problems often work by drying out the local tissues. That’s obviously not good news. If you have a cold and a subsequently blocked nose, you may have a dried-out nose caused by your meds and a dried-out mouth caused by having to use it for breathing. Therefore, it’s essential that you take plenty of fluids.

Alternative medication may include:

·        water, gargling and sleep are free

·        steam – is cheap

·        mindfulness – takes just minutes

·        warm pineapple juice – some find that this can help soothe a throat

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