Best Things to cure sore throat/swollen glands?? Singers HELP!! — Page 2

Room temp water is better then hot or cold

Throat Los.-- Slippery Elm, it taiste horrible but it works wonders. avalible at most health food stores.

Stay away from Dairy products, it will coat your throat and give you more flem

The Cold EZ is great I recomend the Nasal Swabs its a Q-tip kind of thing that you swab the inside of your nose with and its the greatest stuff I have ever used. I had to use it right before I opened YAGMCB in Feb.

Stay away from anit-hysstimens (sp) theey fry out your vocal chords

and I like the one from earlier
next time SPIT

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tea is drying so I would stay away from that and all forms of caffeine and alcohol.

I drink warm water and honey with no lemon...lemon is acidic and can strip your chords.

If you are that ill, stay in bed, rest and don't sing or speak at all.
It sucks, I know, but sometimes, your health is more important than a show or classes.

zinc,vitamin c and lots of it. as a tonic, mix hot water, lemon juice,maple syrup and cayanne pepper. make it very thick, sweet and spicey. many singers i know drink this (ann hampton callway and dianne reeves for instance) good luck! (and btw--when you are around lots of sick poeple don't share phones and don't touch doorknobs--this advice is from iron horse carol channing)

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OK people. Let's clear one ridiculous misconception up right now...

Nothing you eat or drink "strips" your vocal cords. At all.

Stuff you eat and drink goes down your oesophagus, into your stomach. Your vocal cords are in your trachea (the windpipe) and when you eat or drink something, this is covered by a flap of tissue called your epiglottis. This is waht stops you choking on everthing you ingest. So nothing you swallow will ever touch your vocal cords (or if it does, you'll choke, and then you have bigger problems to worry about). Lemon juice will not strip your cords, unless you breathe it in. And then you'll die.

(Of course, stuff you inhale, for example smoke, will affect your voice. And some things might indrectly affect your cords once you've eaten them. Certain medications can cause a little spasm of the epiglottis, causing you to cough a lot. Theoretically, caffeine could dehydrate you and dry up your vocal cords, but once parts of you body like your cords have dried up, you'll be severely dehydrated, and, as I said before, you'll have bigger problems to worry about. Like your heart stopping, or you passing out.)

Mixtures containing glycerin and stuff like that might lubriacte your oropharynx, and feel soothing, but they're not having any action on your vocal cords.

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Updated On: 7/11/05 at 07:56 PM

I'm in the professional fulltime program.

This is going to sound a little odd, and sound like it wouild be damaging, but when my voice is totally clogged and mucusy, etc, and i absolutely HAVE to sing, i drink about 50 mL of vinegar. It tastes disgusting and will quite probably make you wretch, but it will most probably do a great job of clearing out your sinuses.
This is just a suggestion. If you think it sounds unsafe, don't do it. I'm not offering this as professional advice. It's just what I do and have found to work.

I would buy eggs from your usual reputable grocery store and don't leave them out for a long time. Just enough to take the chill off them. As for the glycerin effect on your vocal cords my suggestion was to see a doctor if things did not improve but this mixture will definitely help you sing until you do see a doctor or get rid of the virus.

I am not a doctor so I can't speak from the medical perspective but I can tell you that as a singer I have used this concoction for years and it works.

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I use the warm salt water gargle - def helps.

Thanks, bwaysinger! I just thought I'd rein in some science to this discussion. Science and art go hand in hand!

There's so much nonsense out there about vocal health. Nothing you eat or drink can affect your cords, or you'd die every time you ate. Anti-inflammatories are a good idea but should be used with a touch of caution and they're quite unfriendly drugs so they shouldn't be used too much, especially if you have any stomach problems or have ever been allergic to aspirin.

Hope this helps.

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Hi

No one has mentioned ginger root yet?! Buy some ginger root, peel it and chop it up and boil it on a low gas for about 5-10 min, extract the ginger out and drink the juice.

lots of creaks for vocal warm ups in low registers should be soothing and help the chords start to close again

No problem, JCZ! It's just good to get some of that actual science. I agree about the anti-inflammatories and would like to reiterate most of the remedies listed here are going to be more useful when the swelling or pain is in your tonsils or in the back of your mouth (which often happens to me when I get very sick).

When I'm performing, I drink a lot of Throat Coat tea with honey. but as others have pointed out here - that's simply temporary relief of over-use symptoms. If you really are carrying an infection, sleep and antibiotics are about the only thing that will truly cure your sore throat.
A lot of time, sore throats are psychosomatic, or all in your head, from stress and fear of performing. Rest, liquids and echinacea and vitamin C will help, though, if it's the real thing.

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Wow, there is some really good info here! I'll definitely be keeping it in mind.

Also, take some immune system boosters along with doing the short-term remedies, water, tea etc. I was just on a long singing tour with the choir I'm a part of, and I got very little sleep. But because I took an AIRBORNE tablet, a multivitamin, and a Cod Liver Oil pill every morning, I didn't get sick. (I also drank a lot of water). This is really saying something because I am someone who gets sick when I am down on sleep for more than 3 nights. The AIRBORNE, vitamins, and Cod Liver Oil stuff I got at the health food store.

Good luck and feel better!!

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