ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VOCAL CORDS PHLEGM & VISCOUS MUCOS
Vocal cords Phlegm
Vocal cords phlegm is a most common discomfort among singers and other vocal professionals.
What is Phlegm?
Phlegm is the accumulated excessive mucous. Your body produced it mostly for 3 reasons:
- As a response to foreign intruders, such as bacteria or viruses. In this case, the mucous should just attack the invaders, and then leave the body.
- As a response to inappropriate food or an allergenic factor.
- As a response to ongoing stress on specific organs.
Causes of vocal cords phlegm
- Mucous rising from the esophagus and digestive system (for more information on digestive system acid affecting your voice, see “acid reflux”)
- Using an excessive amount of air during vocal performance. As a result, too much air forces its way through your vocal cords, pushing mucous residue from the respiratory system towards the cords.
- Excessive mucous can also reach your vocal cords from your respiratory system as well.
Symptoms
- Phlegm feels like a thin coating of mucous around your vocal cords.
- Once you feel vocal cords phlegm, properly closing your vocal cords and generating the desired voice will feel difficult.
- Singers might suffer phlegm-related difficulties mostly during ascending to the top of their tone range, or during intense vocal effort, such as long singing or making a high-intensity Other vocal professionals who use their voice for long periods of time, such as teachers and lecturers, will experience this difficulty more intensely during vocal strain or when speaking loudly.
Treatment
- Improve your vocal techniques, especially your vocal cords’ flexibility.
- In case of chronic phlegm, perform your vocal exercises using TPV device. This will provide a long-term solution as well as an immediate solution.
- It is always recommended using TMRG solutions. You can use either TMRG Classic Solution, TMRG Classic Spray, or TMRG Herbal Essence no.77. They will instantly clear off your excessive mucus, and improve your vocal quality as well. For a complete recovery, combine TMRG Saltwater and Oil Spray with some solution.
- Change your diet and eating habits:
Unhealthy foods and excessive eating are known to have ill effects on nearly every body part. Since the effect of diet changing will only be felt in the long run, first support your voice using TMRG solutions, and then, gradually, change your diet.
- Avoid late-night eating.
- Make sure to eat small amounts of food, 3-5 times a day.
- Make sure to chew slowly and thoroughly.
- It is advisable to eat your food (mostly vegetables) when it’s at room temperature or hotter.
Phlegm-increasing foods (to be avoided or consumed as little as possible):
- Milk and dairy products. Find out which dairy products you are most sensitive to. Try use substitutes for cow’s milk, such as rice milk, almond milk, and so on.
- White flour products (white bread, noodles, Seminole, and sweats made of white flour).
- We recommend switching to stevia, a natural substitute for sugar.
- Citruses, except lemons
- Fried and oily foods.
- Roasted nuts and seeds.
Phlegm-removing foods
- Cooked foods, particularly vegetables
- Pumpkin soup
- Cabbage, either raw, cooked or pickled
- Onion and honey syrup: chop an onion, fill it in a class vessel, and add 3 spoonfuls of honey. Swallow a spoonful of the onion’s liquid once every 2 hours.
- Vegetable proteins, e.g. beans and lentils of all colors.
- Whole-grain foods (not industrially processed cereals): whole grain rice, buckwheat, quinoa, and pearl barley.
- Apple vinegar
- Green apples
- Whole rye bread or sprouted grain bread;
- Green tea
- Ginger tea
- Lime tea: add one-fourth teaspoonful of cinnamon, squeezed half a lemon, hot water and honey, to fit tour taste.
- Spices, such as cumin, ginger, anise, fennel, caraway, nutmeg, saffron, and garlic
- Other phlegm-removing vegetables: radish, kohlrabi, almonds and figs (figs produce a lubricant around your cords, keeping away excessive mucosa).
Good Luck
Talya
A TMRG voice specialist
